


Finding Caleb Keel

by AlreadyThere



Series: Far From Home and Finding Caleb Keel [2]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Aurors, Family, Multi, Mystery, Weddings, Werewolves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-09
Updated: 2014-06-20
Packaged: 2018-01-24 02:30:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Underage
Chapters: 11
Words: 22,296
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1588352
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlreadyThere/pseuds/AlreadyThere
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Teddy Lupin, Auror, has taken a mission upon himself: Finding the long lost son of a vagabond werewolf, Marta Keel. What he doesn't yet know (but hopes to find out) is how his late parents, a sleazy ex-healer, an old foe's dead baby brother and a rags-to-riches entrepreneur are connected with the Keel family.</p><p>Underage is mentioned, but not shown.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Disaster at Dinner

**Author's Note:**

> Yay! The sequel to Far From Home and All Alone. Featuring old favorites, new favorites and characters that are no ones favorites and yet stick their ugly faces in this fan fiction anyway! This story will be longer, but not by much. Maybe by 2000 words or so. The chapters will be shorter though. Although that story may not be 100% necessary to read, you may get a little confused if you haven't, so I wrote a re-cap so you don't have to (that story can be found on my account if you want to read it though). So here's what happened: Teddy gets poisoned by a modern terrorist group known as "Grindlewald's heirs", Teddy and Lily get sent back in time, Teddy and Lily meet Remus Lupin, Remus Lupin takes Teddy to a healer named Harley Ray to cure his poison, Healer Ray is unsuccessful, Lily goes home, but not Teddy, Remus and Tonks slip truth potion into Teddy's drink, Remus finds out Teddy is his son, lots of drama, Teddy almost dies, Teddy gets rescued, BAM! Story ends.

_Tim, or what ever your real name is,_

_I'm writing this to you right after you basically told me that you're my son. I've suspected for the last few hours, after you confessed to being a Metamorphmagus, showed up to this address and told us you were born the same year my child will be. I don't think your mother suspects anything, at least not yet. I won't tell her unless she asks._

_I hope that you understand that every horrible thing I've done since we've met, like slipping you Veriteserum and trying to get myself killed, was to protect you. All my life I've been degraded and hated and shown so little kindness because of something I could not control. I've become almost numb to it now, but I would never wish this curse on even my worst enemy. That's why I've broken your mother's heart so many times over the last few years and tried to distance myself from you. I'll try to do better, but if I ever hurt your mother or you again because of my "self sacrificial heroics", know that I am truly sorry for any pain I cause and that the two of you have every right to insist that what ever absurd notion wanders into my head is wrong and set me straight. Most of the time my intentions are good._

_Whatever happens to you or me in the coming years, know that I think the man I met this week can handle any of it. I am very proud to be your father._

_Sincerely,_

_Remus Lupin._

It's been a week now since I found this letter lodged between the pages of my notebook. A week since I returned from one of the most bizarre adventures of my life.

It all began with Harry Potter, as these things usually do. After his oldest son's attempted suicide and the emergence of a terrorist group known as "Grindlewald's Heirs", his protective instinct kicked into overdrive and he gave me protective custody of his teenage daughter, Lily, for the afternoon.

Then everything went wrong, as these things usually do. One thing led to another and the next thing Lily and I know we're in the middle of a forest with my dead father and no way to get back home. He sent me to an illegal medical institution in some guy's basement and poisoned me with Veriteserum to find information on his son. Who was me.

The situation got worked out eventually, as these things usually do. Everybody is home, history is in tact and the last of Grindlewald's Heirs are awaiting trial. Not without giving the both of us a seriously needed perspective change though.

As these things usually do.

I place the letter back on my nightstand and slip an electric blue tie around my neck. I glance into the bathroom to see my fiancée, Victoire curling her hair with her wand.

"What time is it?" She yells.

"Five forty five." I yell back. She puts down her wand and rushes into the bedroom.

"Should I wear my red robes or the blue ones?" She asks me as she ruffles through her closet, throwing a binder full of wedding plans across the floor.

"I'm wearing blue," I tell her. She pulls out her light blue robes and slips them on.

"How do I look?" I ask.

"Hair." She reminds me. I rush back to the mirror and tone my vivid orange hair down to a deep brown.

"What'd you think Grandma would do if I showed up with a turquoise mullet?"

Victoire laughs and slips her arms around me. "You nervous?"

"Nah. This is going to be hilarious."

"Whose going to be there again?" She asks.

"Uh, Grandma, Aunt Narcissa, Draco, his wife Astoria and his son Scorpius. Why are we doing this again?"

"I think your grandmother wanted to reconnect with her sister?"

"Why?" I ask. Victoire giggles again. "At least Aunt Narcissa is a good cook. Hopefully her food won't end up all over the walls again."

* * *

 

"Ted. I'm so glad you could make it. This must be your fiancee," Narcissa shakes my hand and leads me inside.

"I'm glad I could come. Victoire Wesley, meet Mrs. Malfoy," I say.

"Oh, call me Narcissa."

We carry out the conversation without warmth as she leads us to the dinning room. Grandma already sits in an expensive old dinning chair made of a dark wood. The two of us sit down next to her as the doorbell rings.

"That must be Draco," Narcissa mutters and rushes out of the room. I give a nervous smile to Grandma and she smiles back.

"Don't talk about last week," She tells me quietly. I nod, knowing that the war is a sore subject here.

Draco, Astoria and Scorpius enter and sit down.

"How are you doing, Scorpius?" I ask the young man of about Al's age and build.  He's a few inches taller and a lot more blond.

"Fine, Ted." Scorpius answers stiffly, gulping slightly as if afraid I wanted to kill him.

"I told you last time to call me Teddy," I respond brightly. "We're all family here. No need for formalities."

Narcissa returns to the room, levitating a large silver soup tureen full of a reddish orange liquid. She begins laddling the soup into our bowls.

"My mother's tomato bisque," Narrcissa tells us. "Your favorite, wasn't it Andromeda?"

"Oh yes. I'm surprised you remembered. Did you add the secret ingredient?"

"Of course," Narcissa responds with a slight smile.

"Oh my gosh, this is amazing!" Victoire says after a few spoonfuls. "I've never had such an amazing soup in my life!"

"That's because of the secret ingredient," Narcissa says. "You know, you're practically family now. I'll send you the recipe."

"Oh, thank you," Victorie responds.

"Remember when the two of us were kids," Grandma remincess "And we ruined mother's china soup bowls?"

"Vividly. Oh how I miss those days, with the two of us best friends and Bella being alive."

Uh oh. It starts again.

"You... miss Bellatrix?" Grandma asks. Draco and I share a quick glance, one of the only times I ever made eye contact with the man; we both know exactly what is going to happen.

"Do you need help with the next course?" Draco asks. "Scorpius and I could assist you."

The two older women stare stoically into each other's eyes.

"Andromeda, you know what I ment. I miss our sister from before the war started."

"Victoire, you must tell me all about your wedding gown," Astoria says loudly, more like a command than witty request.

"You mean before the two of you disowned me!" Grandma says, raising her voice. "Before Nymphadora was born, who might I remind you was killed by the sister you miss so much!"

"Alright you guys," I say, standing up. "I know we all have some issues here, but what family doesn't? Yes, I am painfully aware that my mother was killed by her aunt and that old memories, no matter how good to some, can be unpleasant to others, but maybe we could forget about all of that tonight and make new memories, together. I mean, we're family, right? We got to stick together and get over all our past, ah, differences."

Next thing we know, Victoire and I sit at the Leaky Caldron, sipping their signature ale and trying to compose ourselves.

"I love your family, Teddy," Victoire laughs. "So much drama for so few people."

"Well, they'll be your family too in a week. See how you like them then."

"Victoire Lupin. Great niece in law of Narcissa Malfoy. Kinda like the sound of that."

I roll my eyes and wave over to the bartender. "I'm still hungery. Let's get some chips."

"Amazing," Victoire says. "I'd like a large order of chips."

Rembering that my hair is still a boring dull color, I transform it to match my electric blue tie, using a spoon as a mirror. Moments later, a man rushes to the stool beside me and sits in it.

"Tim Grey?" He asks quickly. I groan. It's Healer Harley Ray, back alley extrodinaire best known for medical malpractice and breaking patient-healer confidentiality. He's twenty years older than the last time we met, and it shows. His frazzled hair is now streaked with an iron grey and he appears to shave even less often than he used to.

"It's Ted. Ted Lupin. You know that, you treated me after I got back."

"Yes, yes I know that. You'll always be my mysterious little Mister Grey though."

"What do you want?" I ask. "And make it quick, I'm on a date."

"I didn't notice," He says, his eyes drifting to Victoire's bust. "Who's the lucky lady?"

"My  _fiancée_ , Victoire. Focus here."

"Right," He says, shaking his head. "You owe me, in your own words, 'what ever I want'."

"Yes, but from what I understand you owed my father far more than you could ever repay him before his untimely death. Why not we transfer that debt to me and call it even?"

"Alright. My slate with Ted Lupin is clean."

"Thanks," I say, turning away.

"However, Tim Grey still owes me a favor for making me betray the man I owed an un-repayable debt too."

"Tim Grey and Ted Lupin are the same person."

"Well, I did not know that at the time."

"Did you know that you are a horrible debater?" I ask, turning away again.

"Look, this isn't something stupid. This is something your father would have wanted me to do and that I need help with."

I turn back to him. "Explain."

"Marta Keel."

A single name of a woman I've never met. Yet, we both know it is enough. Over twenty years ago, or last week, however you want to look at it, my father mentioned that woman by name upon meeting Healer Ray. I have to admit, I've been a little bit curious about what Healer Ray did to that woman that would get him in more trouble than he's already in.

"What should I do?" I ask.

"Go to the werewolf clinic you volunteer at. She'll be there, but she will not be expecting you. Don't mention me, just talk to her. Hold a short conversation. Then, come to my house. I will explain there."

Healer Ray jumps off the bar stool, leaves money on his table and departs without finishing his drink. "Do you think he's been sitting there every night since I got out of the hospital?" I ask Victoire. "Just waiting for me to arrive so he could talk to me?"

"Wouldn't doubt it," Vic tells me, taking a long sip of beer. "He's even creepier than you described. I half expect him to have a van with the words 'Free Sweets' across it in spray paint."

"No," I tell her. "I bet he drives a classic Crown Victoria. And by classic I mean old, but well maintained. That's more his style. Plus, someone once told me you could fit five corpses in the trunk of one of those things, which is why the muggle police and gangsters use them."

"Really?" Vic asks.

"Yeah. 'Cause when Magical Law Enforcement finds bodies, they can put them in undetectable extension enhanced body bags, but muggles have to just dump them in a big pile in the trunk."

"They just dump them in the trunk?"

"Oh yeah. At least, that's what Carter at work told me. He sometimes elaborates a little, but his mom was a muggleborn, so he's practically an expert about muggles."


	2. Marta Keel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teddy Lupin meets Marta Keel.

The next full moon was the twelfth. Victoire and I entered the lycanthropy clinic to find our cheery, bubbly and outgoing friend Chelsea Parkinson lying on a table.

"Hey Chase-Face," Victoire says with a little wave. Chase glares at her.

"Fuck you."

"Seems like someone's in a cheery mood today," I say, walking over and ruffling her silky brown hair. "What's up?"

"I can't be a bridesmaid for your wedding."

Oh no. Not this again. I sit next to her head and look down at her face and her dark brown eyes. A large group of gruesome scars shine through her milky pale skin, only partially healed.

"I got in a stupid fight with Russell last month and he clawed up my face. How do you expect me to look good next to you two! I'll be, like, the ugliest bridesmaid ever!"

"Chase, everyone's beautiful in their own way, your scars make you stronger, inner beauty is what matters, you're so pretty I didn't even notice the scratch marks, blah blah blah, did I miss anything?" I ramble on. She lightly punches me on the arm.

"Hmph. I'm going to get some coco to wash the taste of Wolfsbane out of my mouth, since SOMEONE won't let me have coffee, Victoire."

"You know too much caffeine can react weird with the Wolfsbane, Chase. Stop complaining and drink your potion," Victoire retorts, pulling her off the table and towards the a table with hot coco and decaf green tea.

"You guys remember before I was like this? I was pretty. Popular. Boys liked me."

"You were a jerk that hanged out with Annalise Lytton. I think this whole lycantropy thing was good for you." I remind her.

"Annie wasn't that bad! We were, like, best friends for about fifteen years. Friends since we were old enough to know what a friend is!"

" 'I don't have anything against muggleborns, per say, but I do think we should make sure they know enough about us before just letting them mix in with the rest of us at Hogwarts. I don't think we should just let anyone in'."

"Okay, maybe that was bad-"

" 'I'm not against muggles at all, but I think maybe purebloods and muggles having kids together is wrong, because the kids could get really confused. They'd be all like Am I a muggle? A wizard? They'd like totally have an identity crisis!'."

"She wasn't that sensitive-"

" 'I'm not prejudice! Some of my friends are muggleborn!' "

"Okay, one, she never said that. Two, none of her friends were muggleborn unless you count her fourth year potions partner."

The three of us laugh. Chase takes a sip of her hot coco as a few more people file in.

"The two of you never knew Annalise. I mean, you knew the horrible things she said and how she felt about people like me. But I loved her, okay? She was my best friend. And maybe if your older brother had been killed by Greyback, you'd feel the same way about werewolves. I'm not defending her. I'm just saying you never had sleepovers at her house or asked her to help you teach your sister to ride a broom."

"Yeah, I get it," Victoire says. "Teddy and I have to help everyone else, 'kay?"

"Yeah, leave me here alone. Great friends you two are."

Victoire and I turn to some of the others. The first one to wave us over is Chase's partner-of-sexual-tension, Russell Baker. He's one of the clinic's success stories. Got bitten as a little kid during the war and kidnapped by Greyback's people. After the war he jumped between foster homes, never finding a family who could handle his condition properly. Barely finished school. Right after graduation though he impressed a broom maker and got a job for him. He's not even thirty and yet he now oversees their international division and is one of our large sum donors in addition to one of our friendliest patients.

"Vic! Ted! I need emotional support!" He yells. We walk over to him and sit at his side.

"What is it, Russell?" Victoire asks him wearily.

"Okay, I need to know how to get into your friend Chelsea's pants."

"Finally," Vic says.

"Okay, I'll tell you how to seduce one of my best friends after you tell me something," I say.

"What?"

"Do you know a woman named Marta Keel here? She'd be, I don't know, about forty something maybe? Approaching fifty?"

"Marta Keel? Yeah. She keeps to herself. Sits over there in the corner. I've never spoken to her."

"Thanks, dude!" I say, leaping over the table.

"Wait, Ted, stop! I NEED TO SLEEP WITH CHELSEA!"

"WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY!?" Chelsea yells back at him, racing to his table. Never a dull moment.

While I leave Victoire to moderate Chelsea and Russell's, um, "feelings", I go to the corner where a tired looking middle aged woman sits sipping her tea.

"Are you Marta Keel?" I ask her.

"Yes," She answers. I pull over a chair and sit next to her.

"I've seen you around, but I don't think we've ever spoken. I'm Ted Lupin. People call me Teddy. I volunteer here to provide emotional support."

"Did you say Lupin?" She asks. "As in Remus Lupin? Taught Defense Against the Dark Arts for a year?"

"Yeah. He was my father. Did you know him?"

"Yes. I didn't realize he had a son. He taught me in my sixth year. He always believed in me. I don't think too many of my other teachers did. I met him again a few years later, during the war. He and one of Dumbledore's people got me and my son to safety. He was a good man."

"I know," I say awkwardly. "How old's your son now?"

"He's gone," She says.

"I'm sorry."

For a moment no one speaks. "The other person who helped me was an Auror. She and your father seemed close. I think her name was Tink or something."

"Tonks?" I ask.

"Yeah, Tonks. Is she your mother?"

"Yeah. She died at Hogwarts with my dad."

"I'm sorry." For another few seconds neither of us speak. "I would have kept up with what happened to more people, but I left the country about a year before the war ended. Made a life there. Only had to come back about two years ago."

"That sounds exciting. Where did you go?"

"Spent some years in France. Then the Netherlands and Germany. Made my way to America after a few more years. Eventually saw Machu Pichu and decided it was time to go home. Upper middle class wizards who don't have house elves will pay people to clean their houses no matter how easily they could do it themselves with magic, it turns out. Plus, some countries have outlawed house elf labor. I'd work as long as I could without people getting suspicions about me. It helped me to forget about things."

"I love France. Especially in the summer. My fiancée has an aunt down there that we visit sometimes. It's a beautiful country."

"Teddy!" One of the volunteers yells. "Cleanup on aisle four!"

"So sorry," I tell Marta. "We'll have to talk about France sometimes."

Apparently little Mikey threw up his potion again. The older volunteer makes me clean up the horrible vomit as she convinces Mikey to drink his Wolfsbane. I wave my wand over the mess and it disappears.

"The moon rises in a few minuets!" Victoire yells. "Everyone taken their last dosage?"

Victoire and I do a quick sweep through the bedrooms to make sure everything is in order. Some werewolves take their free potion and go home, but a lot of them just stay here. I hear being near other people who suffer from the same problem numbs some of the mental anguish of the transformation. Each room contains a few beds and blankets. We don't have anyone new this cycle, so everyone here knows the drill. The patients go to their assigned rooms to transform.

After a few minutes and a few screams later, all the werewolves transform and fall into a deep sleep. The volunteers gather around the table for some more hot coco.

"I think we have everything under control here," Victoire tells me. "Why not you go see why Ray wants you to talk to him?"

"Think I will," I say, getting up from the table an apperating to Healer Ray's house.

I arrive at Healer Ray's house for the second time. His southern England house is still painted in a light cream and he still appears to spend more time on his magical herb garden than on his health and hygiene. I wander up the stone covered walkway and pound on the old fashioned oak door.

"Is that you, Grey?" Healer Ray asks as he sticks his head out the door. I nod and he lets me in. The inside of his house looks unchanged. If I came in here without knowing the house's inhabiter, I would guess I stood in the home of one of my grandmother's friends.

"Did you talk to Marta Keel?"

"Yeah. She seemed nice. We were just about to talk about France when some kid threw up."

"Hmph. Never liked kids. The screaming, the shitting. Vomitin's the worst of all. Marta's was all right though. Why not you sit down while I tell you about them."

I walk over to one of the antique chairs and lightly sit on the edge of it, afraid that its fragile frame might give out beneath my buttocks. Healer Ray hands me a cup of tea. I'm afraid to drink it not only because of what happened last two times I drank someone else's brew, but also because Healer Ray made it and I'm not sure if I'd trust him not to roofie my drink. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me three times, I deserve whatever someone tries to slip me. I start to set it on the end table when Healer Ray rushes over and places his hand on the table.

"DON'T put that down!" Healer Ray conjures a small coaster and places it on the table before nodding.

"I thought the dollie was there to protect the table?"

"No, that's to protect against dust. Your drink could stain the delicate lace."

"You're worse than my grandma. You know what I do? I set my tea wherever I want and clean up the mess later with a spell. Like a normal person."

"You mean like an uncivilized bachelor."

"Aren't you supposed to tell me about Marta Keel?"

"Right." He says, shaking his head and sitting across from me. "Marta's story begins when she was in her sixth year. She was an outgoing Hufflepuff. Very popular with the boys her age, if you know what I mean. Got 'Acceptable' or lower in most of her OWLs the year before. Teachers probably thought she wasn't that bright, not in the traditional sense. She knew what a girl like her needed to know though. Mostly. Made a few mistakes midway through that year and got pregnant. She didn't return to finish her NEWTs.

"For the first year, things were okay for her son Caleb and her. Caleb's father, Eddie Sinclair, was a year older and finished school. He got a decent low level ministry job and she found work as a cashier in an Apothecary in Diagon Alley. Then Volde- Voldemort came back.

"She never doubted that he had returned. She had no reason to. All she knew was that if she kept her head down, Caleb and her would be fine. That worked. For the first year.

"Then Voldemort came out in the open. Caleb's father was a muggleborn who pissed off a young Death Eater back when he was in school. The young man told one of Greyback's men about the scuffle and the next thing you know Caleb was bitten and Eddie was murdered in the attack.

"Treating a werewolf ain't cheap, as you'd know. She was back at work the day after, earning money for Caleb's treatment. Fortunately, I walked right into that apothecary to get some herbs when I noticed a book about living with lycanthropy lying on the counter - it was an even slower day than normal. I told her off handedly that those books where full of sentimental crap and she kind of burst out crying. It was horrible. She explained what had happened to Caleb and I told her to find someone who was a werewolf instead of relining on flimsy literature. I had been recently laid off-"

"Striped of your Healer licensee and fired?" I interpret, knowing all about his various medical malpractices over the years and having the sinking feeling this story was about to end with another one.

"If they really needed me, a few transgressions wouldn't have mattered. Anyway, she mentioned that she once had a Defense Teacher who was a werewolf and I volunteered to find him. That's how I met your father. He was well hidden, but I was able to extract him from that werewolf commune single handedly and Greyback was none the wiser."

"And I'm the Minister of Magic. Who helped you?" I ask.

"Okay, so I had a bit of help. I treated Tonks the summer before. My last patient before being asked to leave St. Mungos, so I remembered her very clearly. She had been hit by some pretty nasty spells and then fell down a bunch of stairs. Severe injuries, very bad stuff. I remembered that Remus brought her in and visited her, so I tracked her down and she felt sorry for Marta. She used Dumbledore's emergency extraction plan and it almost compromised his undercover mission. The three of us took Marta and Caleb to Tonk's flat for the procedure."

"The procedure?" I ask. "What did you do? Try to cure lycanthropy in your basement?"

"Not cure. Transfer. In my Healer apprenticeship days I ran across an old spell that supposedly transfer the curse from one individual to another."

"I've never heard of that spell."

"That's because we now know it's hippogriff shit. But no one wanted to research Lycanthropy at the time, and Marta was willing to try anything. She convinced me it was worth a shot. Of course, Remus and Tonks objected to the whole thing, but this patient was more consenting then most of mine, so I went right ahead."

"Right," I say "Consenting."

"I knew you'd say that," Healer Ray says. "The procedure is hard to explain without showing exactly how it is done, so I got a pensive to show you exactly what happened that day."

"Where the hell did you get a pensive?" I ask as he walks to a far off table to get a heavy basin. Those things are really expensive.

"It was mostly legal," He answers. "Now stick your head so you can see what I inadvertently did to Marta, and to what I will never forgive myself for."

"Did the transfer work?" I ask. Healer Ray shakes his head and for the first time appears to be a little sad.

"No. The procedure gave her lycanthropy but left Caleb with it too. She had nothing left in life. Remus warned her not to get involved with Greyback, but she got desperate and joined his group. After a few months she wanted out. They kidnapped Caleb and sent her body parts the next day. She believed him to be dead. Maybe he is. Maybe he isn't. She left the county shortly thereafter. There was nothing I could do."

The anvil hit me right on the head. "You were in love with her, weren't you?" I blurt out. Healer Ray recoils in horror.

"Of course not!" He stammers. "Me? In love with Marta Keel? That's mad! Get in the pensive and turn off that soap opera in your head!"

"The way you talk about her. Idealized, tragic. Your insistence that we help her now. It all makes so much sense! You still really care for her, don't you?"

"Of course, I care for all my patients, even you little twerp. Doesn't mean I want to _do_ them. What kind of healer do you think I am?"

"You want to redeem yourself her, don't you? Find out what happened to little Caleb and maybe smooth things over between the two of you?"

"I did ruin her life. Does everything have to be a tragic love story to you? Can't I just look for closure? For atonement?"

"Hey, never said you can't do both!"

"Get in the pensive," Healer Ray grunts through clenched teeth, pointing madly at the basin. I reluctantly grasp the edges of the pensive and stick my head into the swirling mess.

A much younger Healer Ray, close to the age I first knew him at, sits on a chair next to a couch were a young Marta Keel lays, pale with a deep incision down her arm. He places his hand on her head and slowly strokes her thin hair while staring into her blank face.

Fortunately, this does not seem to be the only thing going on in the tiny flat I have landed in. A pair of familiar voices swell from the kitchen as Healer Ray casts a quick charm to comfort his charge. I follow Healer Ray to the door and slip into the room before he can close the door separating the slumbering Marta from the rising noise. The room's inhabitants barely notice.

"I'm not spending Christmas with my mum and dad this year, that's for sure," a young woman complains to her companion. With a start I realize that man she is speaking to is Remus Lupin, my very own father. He stands far away from the woman clenching a mug and not responding. Glancing back at the woman I realize she's my mother, Nymphadora Tonks. Right now she looks very different from when we last met. I think before she had platinum streaks in her hair and some kind of funny eye color- maybe cyan or violet. At the present time though she seemed to have opted for the "I don't give a crap about how I look" style. Dishwasher brown hair hung lankly around her pasty face, waving and curling at awkward places down her back. Jeeze, even I take the second to even out the rough patches when I'm sick or hung over.

"Why not?" asks Remus quietly, staring into his mug.

"Because I'm fucking pissed at my mum right now and you aren't making things any easier for me. Do you know what she said to me the last time I saw her?"

"Something bad?"

"Told me to move on. Get over it. You probably agree with her."

"I do," Remus whispers quietly. "But I know it's not easy. I still have feelings for you."

Tonks rolls her eyes and takes a few steps towards him. "Funny way of showing it."

"You know why we can't be together-"

"Why not? I love you, Remus. And unless you were straight up lying to me last year you feel the same way."

"I know, but-"

"Don't you remember last year at all? On that cold winter's night in Grimauld Place's siting room, when we made love -"

With a jolt, I pull my head out of the pensive and turn to face Healer Ray.

"What the hell?" I scream.

"I don't remember the memory being that quick."

"That was the most disturbing thing I've ever heard!"

"I guess I can imagine it would be hard to hear that. It's not exactly a clean conversation, is it?"

"I don't know! I pulled my head out pretty damn quickly," I tell him, taking deep breaths between sentences while trying to remember a who I know is a good oblivatior. Maybe Hermione. She made her parents forget about her. Maybe she could make me forget about my parents...Ugh, why do I get in these situations again?

"What part? When I started talking about the full body blood transfusion?"

"Way before that. I got out of there as soon as Tonks started talking about 'last year at Grimauld Place' or whatever."

Healer Ray gives me a long, blank stare before responding. "Er, what did you do when you got into the memory?"

"I got bored of you petting Marta like a pussy cat and went to the kitchen, where all the exciting screaming was happening, before you got around to shutting the door."

Healer Ray slowly shakes his head and closes his eyes. "Really? How short is your attention span? If you were to give it about five more seconds I would have started explaining the procedure and you could observe Marta Keel. Get back in the damned pensive and listen to ME this time."

"No way. You didn't tell me you were sending me to the House-of-Unresolved-Sexual-Tension!"

"Well, obviously some people in that flat resolved their issues, otherwise you wouldn't be annoying me right now!" With that Healer Ray grabs my head and forces it back into the basin.

This time I stay put as Healer Ray closes the door on my parents. I follow him into the spare bedroom where a little boy lies curled up on a bed over the comforter. He carefully levitates the boy to the living room and places him on a cot he conjures up. Marta drowsily sits up and glances at them.

"Are we ready to do it?" Marta asks him.

"Yes," Healer Ray answers. Marta lies back down on the couch.

"You said this spell totally switches out our blood," She says. I cringe.

"Yes. Well, you'll keep some of your own blood of course, as you have more than your son, but he will no longer have any of his own. If the theory that blood itself is cursed is true, then it may transfer the infection to you."

"Good," She says, closing her eyes. Healer Ray places his hand on Caleb's shoulder and draws his wand. He begins to mutter a long incantation.

Suddenly, I hear a horrible squeezing sound, like a giant wringing out a car sized sponge. A horrible red light engulfs the room. I turn away and close my eyes as the horrible metallic smell fills the room. I quickly press my palms over my nose and hold my breath, keeping the horrible scent away from me.

After a moment the light dissipates and I quickly turn around to see Remus and Tonks enter the room. Tonks sways slightly and grabs onto Remus's shoulder.

"I'm going to be sick," She gasps, turning around and rushing to the bathroom. Healer Ray stands between Marta and Caleb, now wide awake.

"What just happened, mommy?" Caleb asks. Marta runs up to him and pulls him into a hug.

"We're just trying to make you all better, okay Caleb?" Marta says. She glances up at Healer Ray.

"When will we know?" Marta asks.

"Next full moon. Two days from now," Healer Ray answers. I pull my head out of the pensive and turn to the older Healer Ray, now standing next to me.

"That was only slightly less disturbing," I say, feeling as though I might throw up as well.

"Well, now that you saw that she was consenting, we can continue."

"Now I know why Remus said you could get arrested for that," I gasp, trying to hold the vomit back.

"No, the Ministry would hardly care about an old spell. They would care about the Blood Bonding potion I used on them though. It's main ingredient is a heavily controlled substance because of it's psychedelic and psychotic properties when used on it's own. Once made a family man think he was being attacked by apes and subsequently killed his wife and kids."

"Why did I just see all that?" I ask.

"Because I want to find Caleb," He says. "I owe him that much."

"You think that since I'm an Auror, I can help."

"Precisely."

"What do you want me to do? Open up a twenty five year old missing person's case where the subject has been declared dead?"

"Yes."

I laugh. "Dude, I'm a low level Auror. I'm not a team leader. I don't even know if my boss could open up a case like that, much less me!"

"I need you to do this. Just explain it to someone. Pull a few favors and our slate is clean. Get this into a case and I'll owe you."

"I'll tell Thompson what you told me," I say eventually, getting up from the chair and leaving the room. "There's more to this than you're telling me, isn't there? And it's not just that you loved this woman, is it?"

"Not that you need to know."

I apperate back to the lycanthropy clinic and tell Victorie all about Marta and Caleb Keel. She suggests I ask Marta before I go about opening the case. I agree.

The next morning, I found Marta sipping her tea back at the same table. She picks up her coat and is about to leave when I spot her.

"Marta!" I say. She turns around.

"Look, I know this is kind of weird, but how much did Greyback send you of your son?"

I have never seen someone look so shocked in my life. "Bones. Bloody bones with flesh still on them. Why the hell do you want to know?"

"Look, Healer Harley Ray and I know each other. He told me about your son and practically begged me to find him. If you never magically identified them, then there is a very good chance he may still be alive."

Her face softens. "Really?" She asks. "Remus warned me in the beginning…I thought…"

"Healer Ray thinks I can find him but I would like to ask your permission before re-opening this case."

She thinks for a moment. "Fine. But don't bother me unless you have a really strong lead. I don't want false hope."

"All right," I tell her. I reach into my russack and summon a document. "Can you just release Caleb's medical files? We like to look at those."

"Sure," She says, signing the document. "You can have mine too, if that helps. Don't know why it would, but I got nothing to hide with those," She tells me, writing 'Marta L. Keel okay too' in the margin. Not sure if that is the official way to extend who a warrant applies to, but whatever.

"I buried the bones at my parents' house. I'm living there now. Here's the address," She scribbles a house number onto a piece of paper. "You can go dig them up at noon or something. Just do it while I'm at work, okay?" I nod.

"Thanks, Marta," I tell her. "You won't regret this."

 


	3. Grave Diggers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teddy and his partner exhume a body.

"So, sir, remember when I had to transform into a beautiful, "well-endowed" barmaid named Bambi?"

"Lupin, you never call me 'sir'. What's with this sudden respect for authority?"

I sit in Todd Tompson's cramped office the next rainy Monday. For once, his office window matches the weather outside. A sudden burst of rain swept over the London area Sunday night, drenching the summer warmth right out of the city. Normally, the Magical Maintence would just make it sunny down here, but our level's guy is a little, shall we say, 'emo' or 'scene' or whatever the kids are calling the counterculture where one listens to screamo and writes bad poetry. Apparently our society has become disconnected from the beauty of a rainfall or whatever. I consider myself more of a hipster guy personally, so I can get that some could consider sunny days a little to 'mainstream' but come on? For one month?

"So, um, I received some information while off-duty about a missing person," I tell him nervously.

"Missing person," Thompson mumbles, grabbing a piece of parchment and leaning forward. "How old?"

"About three years at the time of his disappearance. Male," Thomspon nods and scribbles frantically. "His name is Caleb Keel. Mom's family is dead now. Dad had died, but I don't know about his family much."

"Need to track down the grandparents. Aunts and uncles too. Family will take kids all the time," Thompson says quickly. "What else do you know?"

"The guy who told me this says he and his mother are werewolves. He thinks that had something to do with it."

"Good. Good. When did this kid go missing."

"March 25, 1997."

"1997!" Thompson exclaims and stops writing. "This guy is older than you!"

"Yeah, well, you know how it is."

"We can't open a missing person case from the war! Do you know how many werewolf kids went missing during the war? A lot of them, that's how many. And the ones who we found got put with other families. I'm sure this guy's fine."

"Look, I just want to reunite a family separated by war, alright? Just give me a little bit of time, please?"

Todd Thompson stares at me for a long time. "One week," He tells me. "You have until your wedding to find this guy. Carter can work with you."

"Thank you so much, Thompson," I say as I get up to start on my work.

"Hey! I'm only doing this because The Boss said I have to give you a good assignment after those two last messy ones."

"I know Thompson. Thanks again!" I say, waving and running off.

The next thing I know it's eleven o'clock and my good friend Carter and I are standing knee high in dirt at Marta Keel's house, digging up a coffin marked only by a pile of rocks and a little plaque reading 'Caleb Keel'.

"This is creepy, Teddy," Carter tells me, taking off his robes to reveal a thin white undershirt and boxers. I had already taken off mine. "When I signed up to be an Auror, I didn't think digging up dead kids was part of the job description," Carter tells me. I'm not gay or anything, but Carter looks pretty nice. He is very muscular and toned, without bulking out too much. He's 'smoking hot' as my girl friends would say. Above his sweat covered abs and pecs sits a chiseled face adorned with a bit of light hair and hazel eyes. He seems to have just the right amount stubble, all the time. I'm a metamorphmagus and I can't accomplish that.

"Found the coffin," I say, levitating out a long box just large enough to fit a child. The two of us gather around it and slowly open the box.

"Gross!" Carter says, turning away. I glance in to just see a bunch of bones.

"Carter, the meat's decayed off. We've seen worse when Dark Wizards want some Sectum-torture time. Let's put the dirt back in and get out of here."

"What are you doing?!"

We turn around and see who I assume is Marta's old muggle neighbor walking through her garden with a cane. She raises it up and points it at us.

"Uh, MI6!" Carter yells, using the name of an elite muggle organization who has the authority to dig up coffins, I think. He grabs his badge from his robe pocket and flashes it, knowing she would in fact see an MI6 badge. "This is really important business, ma'am."

"Then why are you in your underpants?"

"You try digging through dirt in the beginning of Augest without getting sweaty!" I yell back. Carter quickly kicks the soil back into the whole, grabs the coffin and my hand, runs around to the side of the house and apparates us out of there.

We arrive back at the the office to find ourselves standing directly in front of Harry Potter, my godfather and Head of the Aurror department.

"Do I want to know why the two of you are standing in the middle of the hall with just your boxers and a- is that a coffin?"

"Missing persons," I tell him as Carter thrusts the coffin into my hands and runs off in fear of getting fired.

"Tell me about it at dinner. Tomorrow night at my house? You and Victoire?"

"Sure. We'll bring soup," I tell him as I throw my robes back on. "Have you seen Spenser? I need her to do a few spells on these bones."

"She's in her office. I think she has time," Harry tells me and glances at his watch. "I don't though. I told Hermione and Ron I'd meet them for lunch," He says quickly, turning a corner and rushing off.

I wipe the rest of the dirt off my face in the Men's room and walk into Diana Spenser's office. "Hey Lupin," The raven haired woman says sleepily as I place the coffin on her desk and open it up. "Bones!" She says excitedly, spinning in her chair and examining them excitedly. "But my birthday's not for months!"

"Can you tell me something about these?" I ask her. She leans over and waves her wand around them, muttering incantations and occasionally stopping to write down a note or number.

"M'kay," Spenser says after a few minuets. "This kid was a werewolf. Seems he was killed by, well, more werewolves. From a few tooth marks, I'm going to say during the full moon. Odd. Why didn't he transform? Unless he died from the bites...Died about a quarter of a century ago, so…"

"Greyback," I tell her. She shutters and continues. "He was five when he died. A bit small, but five none the less."

"Five!" I say excitedly. "The kid I'm looking would have died when he was three. This isn't the right one! Though, I guess it's a shame this one's dead,' I add, glancing down at the bones.

"Let me study these a little longer," Spenser says. "Maybe I can identify them."

"Knock yourself out," I say. "I'm trying to bring a family closure. Maybe we'll both be successful."

Excited about my, admittedly small, progress, I decide to take lunch with someone else. I send a quick memo to Vic, but she's tied up. I check my watch and remember Chelsea has her lunch break in five minuets. I quickly apperate to the Diagon Alley ice cream shop she manages and get there just in time to see her removing her candy cane striped apron.

"Lunch?" I ask her.

"I brought mine."

"Great! Me too!" I say, leading her out of the shop and to a bench. She reluctantly pulls out a tuna fish sandwich while I quickly magic up a PB and J from the peanut butter, jelly and bakery bread I have in my bag.

"So, had Russell tried to seduce you again?" I ask. She nods.

"You didn't invite him to the wedding, did you?"

"Of course I did! I invited all my friends."

"Ew, you're friends with him? Now I defiantly can't be your bridesmaid."

"Of course you can. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. Have you seen a mental healer? They can give you potions for depression you know."

"I'm not depressed."

"Oh, right. That's just how you're making me feel. Look, why not you just go on a date with him, okay? He may just surprise you."

Chelsea scowls at me as she takes a large bite of sandwich.

"TED LUPIN!" I hear someone yell. I turn to see Diane Spenser running towards us, almost out of breath. She places her hand on her knees and pants heavily as she waves a piece of parchment with her other hand.

"What is it, Spenser?" I ask the witch, trying to help her on to the bench. She waves me away.

"Remember how in school we learned that the Ministry administered 'tests' during the war to see if one's blood was pure? They were bullshit of course, but we still have the blood samples. I compared the bones to all the five year olds on file and found the one I'm looking for. The kid has already been declared dead because the dad checked the pulse and tried to pull the corpse inside, but failed and ended up leaving it for the werewolves.

"Who is it?" I ask.

"Carlisle Lytton."

Chelsea and I are silent. "Lytton?" She asks. "As in Annalise Lytton? My former best friend and Teddy's school day's arch nemesis."

"Does this woman have clearance?" Spenser muses.

"Arch-Nemisis is a little harsh," I tell Chealsea.

"The two of you once offset all of the points your houses earned in a class by arguing."

"Okay, maybe that one was bad-"

"The two of you destroyed a hallway in a duel over the best qudditch team."

"We were a little sensitive-"

"You beat her up in front of Professor McGonagell!"

"Okay, one, she called my mother a pasty whore and my father an evil child murder! Two, she was wrong; My dad never killed anyone and my mum had a very nice tan."

"Alright, Ted," Spenser interrupts. "I just got some human potion ingredients from some creepy wizard in Wales who the top guys brought in this morning. Can you give the family their child's remains?" She says, handing me a small bag out of her pocket I bet somehow had the coffin in it.

"Sure," I say. Spenser waves and runs off. "How long's your lunch, Chase-face?"

"An hour and half. I missed a few to make up for it so I could refill my potion kit. I'm out of a few herbs."

"I'll get you some herbs fresh from my friend's garden. Annalise still lives at home, right?"

"Last I heard," She says.

"Cool," I hand her the bag. "You can give this to them."

"What?!"

"Annalise used to be your best friend. You're getting her back."

"I don't want her back! Stop meddling, Teddy!"

I grab her arm and took us to the home of the person who hates me most in the entire world. Isn't this job great?


	4. Reunion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teddy finds out Caleb might still be alive, returns the remains of another boy to his family, and reunites two long separated best friends.

"Over twenty five years ago, a werewolf took this family's son away," I say, dragging my good friend Chelsea Parkinson up a stone pathway up a manicured lawn to a huge mansion on top of the hill. "Now, a werewolf is going to return the son to them. Poetic, isn't it? Man, these people are loaded."

"Annalise isn't here! She has too work, remember? Stop getting into my problems!"

"Ah, but she's a ministry worker. Department of Magical Law enforcement. In fact, she's an assistant for someone who works for Hermione Weasley, who is at the moment having lunch with both her husband and Harry Potter. When those three have lunch together, the assistants are sent home by the others because by the time Hermione gets back and gives them more work, it's quiten' time anyway."

The two of us and the tiny bag containing Carlisle Lytton's remains arrive at the front door. The second after I knock on the door, I wonder for the first time if this is really a good idea.

"Hello?"

Annalise Lytton opens the door. Her tiny frame barely reaches my shoulder, like when we last met, but she traded her school girl straight-backed hair for a modern, wavy yet sleek shoulder length blond do'. "Lupin?" Upon seeing me her eyes open wide, then narrow. "What are you doing at my house." Her eyes wander to Chelsea. "Why is  _she_  here?"

"I'm actually an Aurror now, meaning that if there's any funny business here today, I have the authority to arrest you. Why not you get your folks and we sit down for a minute. Your family got wrapped up in a case of mine."

Annalise reluctantly lets Chelsea and I inside. "Mum! Dad! Some Aurror wants to see us."

The group gathers in their spacious, bright sitting room. The Lyttons sit side by side on the couch, while Chelsea sinks comfortably into a large sitting chair and stops, as if realizing she is no longer welcome to make herself at home. I remain standing.

"Right," I say. "Mr. and Mrs. Lytton, I know you don't want to think about this, but your son was killed by werewolves, right? And his body went missing?"

The two nod. I take a deep breath and glance at Chelsea who hands me the bag. "In this bag is a body I exhumed this morning. The women who buried him believed the boy to be her son, his bones sent to her as proof of death. Turns out he was not."

"You mean-" Mrs. Lytton says, sitting up slightly.

"This bag holds your son's body. I would recommend viewing the body with caution, it's been almost thirty years, but it's policy to give the family found bodies so that they can arrange a burial."

The family looks at me in shock. For a moment, no one speaks. Then, Annalise pipes up. "But why is Parkinson here?"

"This is a very delicate situation. Chelsea Parkinson knows your family well and, like your late son, suffers from lycanthropy. She seemed like a good person to advise me-"

"Now wait a moment!" Mrs. Lytton "You can hardly call my Carlise a- a werewolf! A monster!"

I want to strangle Mrs. Lytton, but I outgrew the urge to use fists upon bigots a long time ago. Fortunately, Chelsea composes herself and draws herself out of the chair and approaches Mrs. Lytton.

"Forgive me, Mrs. Lytton," She starts. "You know how much I respect you and your family. I mean, you took me trick-or-treating and taught me the easiest way to peel potatoes," she tells her, starting to smile a little bit. "But no amount of bigotry or hatred will change the fact that Carlisle has been dead for a very long time. I want you to remember, Mrs. Lytton, that for the last few moments of your son's life, he was a werewolf. Just like me and Teddy's father."

Chelsea turns to the door. "Thanks for taking me here, Teddy. I know you wanted it to turn out better, but I'm just glad I was able to put that out there."

The two of us let ourselves out while I mentally slap myself. Why did I think taking Chase here would magically change years of pent up anger and prejudice? Chelsea seems okay about all of it at least. She even smiles at me.

"CHASE!"

The two of us turn around to see Annalise standing on the edge of the stone steps on her manor porch, hands wrapped tightly around the door frame. She pushes herself out of the house and runs barefoot across the yard. "I'm so sorry!" She cries as she pulls Chelsea into a tight hug. "I'm so,  _so_  sorry."

For a moment I simply watch the two women cry into each other's shoulders like blundering idiots. Eventually, I recognize the importance of a private moment. "Um, I'm going to let you two catch up," I say, pointing over my shoulder.

"Get out of here, Lupin," Annalise sobs. I grasp my wand and the next thing I know I'm back at the ministry.

"I just found out a woman's son might still be alive, returned the remains of another boy to his family, and reunited two long separated best friends. What did you do today?" I ask, to no one in particular.

"I didn't do anything, but my wife just gave birth!" One of my co-workers exclaims in a sort of daze.

"Oh, thank God you finished that undercover job!" another co-worker exclaims. "Let's get you to the hospital to see your new little girl."

"Yeah, take your accomplishments somewhere else," I mutter, walking back to my cubicle and away from the other Aurrors who ran over to fuss over Mr. Upstager. Sorry I use protection when I do it.  Although my next step should be to go get the Keel's medical records, since I have a warrant for that, I don't want to go with half the rest of the universe so I file some paperwork to receive the profiles found on all the kids from Greyback's camps. I send a memo to Vic telling her I'll be home late and grab some dinner at a local cafe before heading to St. Mungo's.

I arrive at a crowded street corner and make my way to a discrepit looking department store. The mannequin lets me in and I make my way to the reception desk. A young auburn witch sits at the counter twisting her wand.

"Hello," She says, looking into my eyes. "What's a handsome man like you doing in a sad place like this?" She asks me with the hint of seduction in her voice. I pull out the warrant.

"Need to see some medical records. Where would I find those?"

"Right back here," She says, leading me into the back room with a hand on my shoulder. Desperate.

"Thank you. I won't be long."

"Just ask for Nurse Varnes if you need anything. Or Venus. That's what everyone calls me. Do you want me to write it down?" She asks, pulling out a quill and placing it on my hand.

"No thanks," I say, pulling it away. She pouts her lips and walks out of the room.

I've never seen so many filing cabinets. They must have one for every wizard who has ever been here in from the time it was built. I meander down the aisles until I find the 'K' section.  _Alright_ , I think.  _First drawer first?_

I reach for the first drawer, when YOWL! The handle burns my skin. Guess I don't have the clearance.

"Um, Caleb Keel?"

At that, Caleb's file jumps out of a drawer and into my hand. On a whim, I ask for Marta's file as well as Caleb's. Nothing wrong with that. She said I could, so the warrant covers both of them.

There's nothing new in Caleb's file, except something peculiar on his birth certificate. It has Marta's name on the mother's information, but everything regarding his father is blank. Odd that Edward Sinclair's name was missing. Actually, come to think of it, I wonder why Caleb used Marta's name to begin with. Teenage pregnancy or not, wizards are a little old fashioned and if Marta and Edward were living together on good terms, there was no reason not to use the name Caleb Sinclair. Maybe it was because Edward was a muggle during the war. That made sense, right?

I opened up Marta's medical file. First was her birth certificate. Then an incident from when she was seven. Apparently she picked up her mother's wand and accidentally vanished her left eyeball. Next was a file transferred from Hogwarts of various injuries and spell damage. I expected to see a document of her admittance to the maternity ward next.

I did not. The next page document an incident on Christmas Day, 1993. According to the description, her father and uncle got into a drunken argument and drew wands. Marta was in the same room and got hit by three of their stray curses. She stayed in the hospital recovering for nearly a month.

Healer Ray treated her.

I pulled out Caleb's birth certificate. Born September twentieth, 1994.

No way.


	5. Healer Ray's Secret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teddy confronts Healer Ray after he suspects that Healer Ray is Caleb's father.

I could not believe what I read. Caleb was born just less than nine months after Healer Ray treated Marta Keel. According to my initial calculations, Caleb's father could not be anyone else. He'd have to have been born premature, which he was not. His medical record would have said it otherwise. Of course, I'm an Auror, not a "Who's My Baby Daddy Calculator", so I might be off, but it's worth visiting Healer Ray and asking him about this slightly disturbing development.

I thank "Venus" for her assistance, slip the records in my bag, and apperate back to Healer Ray's gingerbread house.

After I arrive, I pull my silver watch from my pocket and glance at the time. Nine thirty. Not too late for Healer Ray. I walk up the marigold lined path and bang on the door, pulling the page of Marta's record he himself signed out of my bag. He pulls open the door.

"You should ring the doorbell next time, Mister Grey. It's there for a reason," Healer Ray tells me. I hold up the page.

"Caleb was born in September the next year. Please explain."

Healer Ray sighs and lets me in. "I guess you'd have found out eventually. Come in,"

I sit down again on his couch. Healer Ray begins.

"She the only one. I never had relations with any of my other patients. She was a hundred percent consenting, but because of Marta's age there was no difference in the eyes of the law. I knew I would have much worse than a reprimand, being with her. The only reason we did it was because from the moment I laid eyes on her, I loved her.

"I did preform untested procedures, but only when patients would die otherwise. I saved countless lives. Most other healers turned a blind eye because of that. They only fired me for it in '96 because they found out I was having sex with a patient, one of which who was sixteen, and they couldn't have that. The Daily Prophet was getting bored of Anti-Potter and Anti-Dumbledore crap, especially after their star gossip reporter left and did an exciting expose including Potter's first person account of the whole Vold-Voldemort resurrection and catapulted that tabloid to a bestselling news magazine. A St. Mungo's sex scandal? Delicious. St. Mungo's medical malpractice incident that no patient noticed, cared or complained about? Boring. Sex sells.

"Marta didn't want me to be Caleb's father. Eddie was her best friend. He was gay though, and his quite conservative muggle family and him already had a rough relationship when he did not want to join the family business because he was a wizard. Being gay, his family, with time, could deal with. After a while, they dealt with him being wizard just fine. But both? Edward was terrified of his family finding out. He became so terrified in fact that upon finding out his best friend was pregnant, he asked her if he could tell his parents the child was his in return for helping to raise it. Marta agreed, but did not put him on the birth certificate in case he wanted an out. By the time he died, he cared for Caleb just as much as he would his own son."

The two of us are silent for a long time. "You could of told me Caleb Keel was your son. I might have been more cooperative even."

"No one knows I'm Caleb's father except Marta and me. It was better that way."

"If I find Caleb, he won't remember Marta, Eddie Sinclair or you. You have to tell him, alright? Promise me?"

"I'm doing this for Marta, really. The two of them shouldn't have to worry about me at all…"

"PROMISE me, Harley Ray."

After a long moment he holds up his right hand. "Promise."

"Do I have to make an Unbreakable Vow?"

"That's not necessary, Mister Grey."

"Are you sure?"

"I swear on my son's life," He tells me. I glare at him and exit the house, going back to my flat.

"Hey, Teddy," Victorie calls out as I arrive back to my living room. I place my bag by the door and walk to our tiny blue wash kitchen, where Victorie is siting at the counter, eating a sandwich. "How's the case going?"

"Good. How was your work today?"

"Unspeakable."

I open up the top cabinet and pick out a small blue ceramic cup for my evening tea. "Chelsea and Annalise reconciled today," I tell her as I open the pantry looking for some chamomile.

"Wha?" Victorie asks in shock, her face still full of sandwich. She quickly swallows. "Details. Now."

"Long story short, I found the Lytton kid's bones and took Chelsea with me to return them. She told Mrs. Lytton that her son was in fact a werewolf when he died."

"Been wanting to do that for years," Victorie interjects.

"And then when we left Annalise came running out like she was in some cheesy romance novel and I left them to catch up."

"Wow," Victorie says as I light the stove for the tea kettle. "Never expected that."

"Hey, Harry invited us over tomorrow night. Can you come? I told him I'd make soup or something."

"Yeah, I can. Narcissa actually mailed me the Tomato Bisque. It's simple. Do you want to bring that? I think we still have those fresh tomatoes in the icebox," She tells me.

"Yummy." I say, checking the fridge for the right ingredients. I need to pick up some cream. While I'm there, I pull out the milk and set it on the counter. "Do you want any tea?"

"Do we have any of that jasmine green?"

I find the box and throw her a bag while she summons her own cup. The kettle whistles, so I take it off the fire and pour it in our mugs over the bags.

"Are you any closer to finding Caleb?" Vic asks as she pours some milk into her tea and hands me the carton.

"Not really. I do know I can't trust Healer Ray though," I say as I pour the milk into my own cup. "He lied to me. I also learned he was sleeping with his patients in addition to non consenting human experiments and blabbing about his patient's medical records."

"And this suprieses you because…?"

"I mean, I guess knew Healer Ray was unethical," I say quietly.

"Why are you doing this for him, Teddy? He won't even tell you his intentions."

"I'm not doing it for him," I tell her after taking a sip of tea. "I'm doing it for Marta Keel. Maybe for my parents a little too. They somehow got wrapped up in this. I think they would have wanted this to get resolved."

We sit and think for awhile. After we finish our tea, I take the cups to the sink to wash. "You know, Vic," I say to my fiancee. "Healer Ray might not have any ethics, but I think he has morals. He wants to do the right thing."

 


	6. Interlude One: Chelsea Parkinson

My baby sister was born with a speech impediment. We fixed it with time, but when she was first learning to talk, she could not say my name. Annie told her to just call me Chase. Between my close friends and family, the name stuck.

Annalise and I had three goals life: Be successful, improve the world a little bit, and not end up like my Aunt Pansy, middle aged with only cats for company. In that order. There was no secret agenda or grand ambitions. We just wanted to be the type of people our parents were, because we were used to their lifestyle and they seemed to be happy.

Right before I turned seventeen, in the summer before my sixth year, I got in a huge fight with my dad over letting me join the Triwizard Tournament. The Triwizard Tournament had been reinstated nine years before, to a rousing success. No one actually died over the last two tournaments and with Karkaroff the Death Eater gone and Madame Maxine working with Hogwart's late and former Headmaster Albus Dumbledore over the course of the War, the competitiveness turned a bit more friendly than in the past. In light of this, the Triwzard Committee chose to lower the age to anyone in sixth year and above, as long as those not yet seventeen received permission from a parent or guardian.

He would not let me, even though Annalise could. I did not want to compete one bit. I just wanted to see France and spend the year at Beuxbottoms, cheer for my champion and even meet a foreign hunk.

I went for a walk in the woods outside my house to clear my mind before immediately flooing Annalise to bitch about it. The night was dark and cool. The last thing I remember is the howling of a wolf in the distance.

Then lying on the forest floor, coat torn from my chest and blood slowly drying and freezing on my back.

When my screams called my parents over, at first they didn't know what happened. They did not know until the Healer told them at the hospital. I'll never forget my mother's face. She quickly turned to me and saw me not as her little girl, who she had held in her arms after ten hours of labor or straightened her hair as she departed on the Hogwart's express for the very first time, but as a monster.

My father told me I should enter the tournament. He did not add that maybe, hopefully, it would kill me, but he did not have to. To them, I was already dead.

The man who bit me visited me in the hospital. He came in sobbing and trying to apologize, carrying a huge bouquet of flowers and offering to pay my medical expenses. I got out of bed and screamed at him. What were flowers, money and words going to do when you ruined someone's life and taken away everyone who's ever loved them. I became so angry I punched him in the face. He left in silence, with a bleeding lip and a black eye. Looking back later, I think he thought he deserved it.

I kept it from Annalise for half the year. The teachers were actually really cool about the whole lycanthropy thing. They let me go to Beuxbottom's and made up dumb excuses as to where I was during the full moon and even arranged for me to take wolfsbane and sit in this little comfy room to transform. Lying wasn't even that bad, at least not until the Yule Ball. Eve Conway was with us and an aspiring fashion designer. We all pooled our money for the material and she designed these beautiful matching dresses for the Hogwart's girls in shimmering gold fabric with scarlet accents, as our champion was a Griffindor. They were sleeveless and showed quite a bit of back though, so I told Evie I get cold and asked her if she would be offended if I put a matching shawl over it. She didn't mind at all. In fact, she bought a beautiful red lace to make me a custom one out of.

I don't think I had ever felt so beautiful in my life. Beuxbottoms covered their Great Hall with unmetlting ice sculptures and delicate blue glass baubles, opened at the top for air circulation for the fairies lounging inside. Then there was us, the Hogwarts students, walking in like a set of collectable dolls, each a part of the group but, thanks to the subtle differences Evie worked into each accent, an individual.

At dinner Annalise asked why I had a shawl on. Our table was right by a fireplace carved from ice, magic keeping both the warm and cool alive. I told her I liked it on.

When we started dancing, Annalise pulled on my shawl, telling me to take it off so I could move better. I told her not to touch it, but she and her date laughed and it became a game, as things like that usually do. I did a pretty good job of not panicking, playing and teasing as if there was nothing really under my shawl, laughing whenever they almost did pull it off. Eventually, Annalise took out her wand and just summoned the damn thing. It flew from my shoulders like the blood that once flew out of the scars. Annalise and our dates went silent. She just stood there, holding the crimson shaw in her hand.

"Annie," I said, reaching out for her shoulder.

"NO!" She yelled. "DO NOT TOUCH ME, YOU MONSTER!"

Everyone around us stopped dancing and turned around to see what Annalise was yelling about.

"She's a werewolf!" Annalise screamed, pointing at me.

Everyone in the room stops to stare at me. In shock, I run from the dance, through the halls, to the top of a nearby tower, desperately trying to keep the tears from my eyes. It wasn't until I got to the top that I noticed someone had followed me.

"What do you want?" I cried. I turned to see none other than Ted Lupin, Annalise's…nemesis? Is that too dramatic? He had the scarlet we were using as one of our school colors on his hair and in his hand, coloring my shaw.

"Evie's happy you were wearing this," He said, draping it over my shoulders. "She's really proud of it."

"I want to jump," I told him simply.

"Don't do it."

"Why? No one cares about me anymore."

"I don't doubt that," Ted Lupin says, to my surprise. "But I think I'd want to. Would you like to dance?"

We did. He was even dating this pretty jerk he later broke up with, but he danced with me for a whole song.

After a while, his friends became my friends and my old friends became my enemies. I used to think bad things about my new friends, because Annalise did and before we shared beliefs. It was odd, being friends with so many free and popular people when everyone in the school sees you as a werewolf loser. Really, Teddy and his friends seemed to be some of the most popular kids in the school, just because they were so friendly and outgoing. Robert was kind of the quiet one, but he had a great personality once you had just one conversation with him. He looked to be all muscle and could hit a bludger across the entire field with his beater's bat. When he entered his name into the Goblet of Fire, everyone thought he would be our champion. And we were right. Robbie just seemed to live life as if everything was possible. I think he's the manliest free spirit I've met

Evie was the artsy one. She wrote and drew on her white canvas shoes and wore her hair in a different style every day. As early as her fifth year, she was selling custom made clothing to other students. We became fast friends. I spent the next summer at her house since my parents made it clear that they did not want me to come back.

When I returned for my seventh year, Teddy introduced me to Victorie. The two of us just seemed to click the moment we met, even though we were two years apart. I did not even get jealous when she admitted to me that she was having feelings for Teddy, whom I have to confess, back then I had feelings for too. How could I not? Seconds after my old friends left me, he gave me new ones.

That's done now. I hate to admit it, but now I'm starting to have feelings for Russell Baker. Don't tell Teddy.

When Teddy dragged me to Annalise's house, I told her mother all the things I've wanted to tell the people from my old life. I didn't think I'd get through to them, but I did think I'd feel better.

I was right. I did. My words bounced off of Mr. and Mrs. Lytton as well.

Annalise heard though. She ran out of the house after me and apologized again and again.

Flowers and money may not make up for ruining someone's life. Sometimes though, words can be a start.

All afternoon Annalise and I sat on the lawn and talked like we were young again. For a few hours, it's like the last eight years never happened. I'm pretty sure she thinks I'm an exception. That most werewolves are still the evil monsters she sees them as, but somehow I kept myself when I got bitten. It's a start. When I left, she promised to see me again, and bring my sister along so we could catch up too.

That night Russell flooed me up and asked if I wanted to come over for dinner. This time, I said yes. He led me through the fire to see that he had decorated his apartment with red candles and turned down the lights. He even enchanted rose petals to fall from the ceiling, but yet not fall on our dinner of grilled salmon, sun dried tomato risotto and roasted green beans. I asked him if he really thought all the cheesiness really worked on women. I did not tell him it already had.

The next morning I visited the werewolf who bit me. Not only did I accept his apology, I apologized myself for what I said and did all those years ago.

I work at an ice cream shop and all I've ever done for the world is bitch about it. I'm not alone though.

And that's what's important.


	7. To Azkaban

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teddy visits an old Death Eater.

The next day I hoped to make a list of all the kid werewolves who were male and about the right age. A lot of the kids found I knew the ministry couldn't find their parents; unfortunately, many parents wanted nothing to do with their now bitten children and did not respond to the pictures they sent out. Harry said that was one of his very first jobs as an Auror, mere weeks after The Battle of Hogwarts. Normally, he said catching the rest of the Death Eaters felt oddly gratifying; when he raided Greyback's compound, he just felt sick.

Unfortunately, the general incompetence of Ministry bureaucracy kept me from achieving that goal. My carefully filed in forms requesting that information became lost. Instead, I did some work not related to the case, refilled the forms as well as turned in one asking for permission to see Fenrir Greyback in his cell (worth a shot), and argued with the record's room secretary. By eleven AM, I was done with that, so I took a quick early lunch. When I got back to my cubicle, Todd Thompson rushed in.

"Lupin!" He said, waving around one of my forms. "Can you believe it? They accepted your form to visit a child torturer before letting you get a list of orphans. Really? Anyway, Potter said you need to be careful. Something about Greyback ruining your family's life and him not wanting you to try and kill him."

He grabs Carter from his office and the two of us go to the northern shore of Scotland. The little town of Asker, from which we depart for the prison, is covered in a bit of an odd, cold mist. Dementors. I shudder. Although there were some campaigns to get rid of them following The War, they fell through. To many people feel more safe with them than without.

We make our way through the grey little town until we get to a small boat by the docks. A decrepit middle aged witch smokes on a pipe filled with what may or may not be tobacco.

"Azkaban?" She asks. We flash our badges and she lets in the boat, tapping the side with her wand to send us flying towards a depressingly tall tower atop a far off island.

"Who ya visiting?" she asks, throwing her pipe at her side.

"Greyback," I tell her. She shudders.

"That creep gives me 'da chills," She tells us, pulling a flask from her pocket. "Here we are,"

The witch lets us onto the island before quickly taking off. The two of us walk along the rocks to arrive at the large front door of Askaban prision. We enter to be met by a large dementor.

"Ministry of Magic," I tell the dementor, flashing him my badge. "We're here to see Fenrir Greyback."

The dementor nods and lets us inside. We start to make our way down the hall.

I cast a patronous, which for me takes the form of a large chameleon. Get it? I change my looks to fit a situation, so does the nobel and graceful chameleon…Okay, my patronous is lame, alright? But it keeps Carter and I from the dementor's mouths and gives enough light to see the name plates.

"Greyback's here," Carter says, pointing to a small plaque on the bars. The two of us use the key we were given back at the office and let ourselves in.

Greyback is sitting in the back of the cell in what I am sure is a pool of his own piss. He looks to be about a eighty five or so. His leathery skin hangs limply off his skin, red and bumpy from decades of sratches and bites. His torn robes barely even cover his body. The patronous's glow rejuvenates slightly upon seeing us. He even smiles, giving us a flash of yellow, rotted teeth.

"Fenrir Greyback," I tell him. "My name is Ted Lupin. This is my partner, Douglas Carter. We have some questions for you about Marta Keel and her son Caleb."

"Keel, Keel," He mumbles, shaking his hands together. "Yes, yes I bit little Caleb Keel once. No, twice. Delicious. Almost finished off his sweet flesh too, but that boy was obedient. Mother left with him, but we took him away. Gave her the bones of some other kid to punish her. What else could we do? Runt already got to her,"

"That 'some other kid' was named Carlisle Lytton!" I yell to him. He reaches up and grabs my hand.

"Lupin, did you say?" He strokes the inside of my palm. "Long time since I tasted Lupin skin. Soft. Sweet. Juicy."

"Alright there," I say pulling it back. "Do you know anything else about Caleb."

"Delicious."

Ugh. I have never seen someone so disturbing in my life. "Goodbye, Fenrir Greyback," I tell him as we leave.

Carter and I leave the prison and we go into Asker to find a cafe. I order an apple cake while Carter gets a chocolate muffin.

"Um, do you want to, like, talk about it?" Carter asks me.

"Not really," I say. Carter looks relived.

"Good. I don't want to say feelings are just for chicks, I mean dying puppies make me cry and all, but-"

"I get it."

Carter and I finish our pastries, but the two of return home instead of the office. Azkaban made us both feel a bit sick and we can get away with skipping a little work.

Upon arriving home, after stopping at the the store to buy cream, I start making the soup. It's not that hard. By the time Vic got home I only had to continue cooking it.

"Look who I found at work!" She says as she walks in, leading James Potter, donned in white Unspeakable robes, with her.

"I applied for a spot in the Unspeakables department." James says. "I didn't tell anyone in case I didn't get it, but I did! I just started today."

"Imagine my surprise when they said they got me my first protege and this bozo came out," She says, ruffling James's hair.

"We were just heading over to your parents' house," I say. "You can help us carry this soup."

"I'm going to change," Victoire says, walking to the bedroom to change out of her Unspeakable robes into something more stylish.

"That's great you got a job, James," I tell him. "I know the unemployment thing has been grating on you."

"Thanks, Teddy," He says, rubbing his wrist awkwardly. "It's a cool job, you know? I mean, I can't speak about it obviously, but my dad used to tell me all about the Department of Mysteries when I was a kid, and it's cool that I know what all this stuff does now."

Victorie finishes getting dressed, so her, James and I bring the soup over to the Potter's house. To my surprise, Ginny is sitting at the table in their large, bright kitchen with Russell Baker.

"Ted! Vic!" He exclaims, ruffling his auburn hair. "I can explain!"

"He's here for an interview," Ginny says with an eye roll. "I asked him where he wanted to do it, and he said my house for some reason."

"I always wanted to see where Harry Potter lived," He tells us offhandedly.

"What are you talking to this loser for, Aunt Ginny?" Victoire asks. "I thought you did sports stories."

"I'm apparently revolutionizing the world of broommaking," Russell says with a shurg. "Now, if you all excuse me, I have revolutionizing to do," Russell announces with a florish of his hands and a quick bow before exiting the house.

"Ugh," Ginny complains. "If England would have just gotten it's act together and not been eliminated in the first round, I wouldn't be doing these stupid fluff human interest pieces. This humiliation never would have happened when I was on the team," she mumbles.

"You know it's bad when you just keep hoping our seeker's going to catch the snitch so we'll only be 500 points behind at the end," I agree.

"And we had to sit through that agony for almost two days!" Al exclaims as he enters the house, wearing his select team's robes and covered in mud "At least the Harpies are doing pretty good now".

"Albus Severus Potter, what the hell did you do?" Ginny exclaims. "Forget to use your broom? Decide that you'd take up that muggle sport, Rug-knees?"

"Rugby," James corrects. "Rug-Knee is when you play tag in the sitting room and your sister slides under the coffee table."

"Long story. Hey Teddy. How you doing?" Al deverts.

"Amazing. We brought tomato bisque. It's good," I tell him. "Where are Harry and Lily?"

"Lily's trapped in her tower prison while Harry's out partying with dem hoes," Al mutters under his breath. James tries stiffle a laugh. I think I'm missing an inside joke, and it's probably hilarious. I'm just happy to see James genuinely smiling.

"I think Lily's in her room," Ginny says, gesturing up the stairs as I place the pot of soup on the kitchen counter. "Someone should go get her."

"Teddy," Al says, pulling me aside. "Go in there looking like her boyfriend," he says gleefully.

"Lils has a boyfriend?!" I exclaim.

"Lower your voice, mum and dad don't know and I'm dead if I'm the reason they find out," Al whispers.

We call Lily down as Ginny puts out the rest of the food. It's a light dinner, just a loaf of beer bread Lily made earlier that day, some arugula salad, and the soup, but it all looks excellent. Harry pulls out a very nice bottle of chardonnay and serves it along side the meal.

Dinner is filled with good natured laughing and conversation. James insets Harry tries at least two sips of soup before he revels who sent us the recipe. Ginny says we should feed it to her brother Ron and see his reaction when he tries 'Malfoy Soup'. Al tells us about his quiditch practice and Vic assures him that he would make a better chaser than anyone on England's team right now. I have not honestly seen James this upbeat in months. He spends the entire dinner cracking jokes and complementing Lily on her beer bread.

"You two ready for the big day this weekend?" Ginny asks us.

"Yep. Dominique and I went to Evie's house to try on the dress this weekend. She's really proud of it, says it's her best work yet."

"It's so cool you're friends with a fashion designer," Lily says enviously.

"Custom made dress robes. What's not to love?" Vic asks.

"Better finish that case before the big day," Harry tells me. "How was Azkaban today?"

"You went to Azkaban!?" Al exclaims.

"He had to interrogate Fenrir Greyback," Harry explains.

"He had to interrogate Fenrir Greyback!?"

"Let's not talk about Greyback at the table," Ginny says. "How about we talk about what flavor of ice cream everyone wants instead?"

After enjoying bowls of bright green mint chocolate chip ice cream, James, Al, Lily, Victoire and I go outside to hang out on the porch to watch the sunset. James lights a flame in the fire pit.

"Hey Lils?" I ask.

"Yep."

"How serious are you and your boyfriend?"

He cheeks turn as red as the tomato bisque. "I mean…"

I laugh and hand her an invitation to my wedding. "Don't be afraid to bring him. I'll have the planner add an extra seat. Do you still have that ugly jumper Remus gave you?"

"It's upstairs," She answers. "Are you cold?"

"No. My mother told me to burn it."

The two of us glance into the fire and share a mischievous smile.

"Accio ugly jumper!" I yell, pointing my wand to Lily's window. The jumper flies out and into my hand.

"You want to do the honor?"

"Love to."

I quickly cut out a small section with my wand and throw it in my bag before throwing Lily the jumper. She tosses it in the fire, showering sparks across the porch.

"Burn baby, burn." Lily says gleefully, the two of us staring at the fire as it slowly consumes the ugly green fabric.

* * *

The first thing I notice upon arriving at the office in the morning is that my forms to get the names of the orphaned werewolves had not been dealt with yet. Damn. How long does it take to approve a list?

The second thing I notice is a brown owl standing in my inbox, holding a letter.

"Hey dude," I say, stroking the little thing's head. It's feathers are just as soft as Ginny's old owl, Persephone. When she had died, it was the first time since I was a baby that I was confronted with death.

Speaking of Ginny, I pull open the  _Prophet's_  Sport section to see that her article had already been printed. That was fast. I guess the many flattering pictures of Russell Baker were taken or procured at an earlier time. Throwing the article aside to read later, I grab the envelope out of the owl's mouth and send him on his way.

Inside are two moving pictures and a short note. The first one is of a young child with wide eyes and deep auburn hair. I flip it over to see that someone wrote "Caleb Keel" on the back. This should be useful. The second one is of Marta, Caleb and, a bit surprisingly, Healer Ray. Marta and Healer Ray are just barely grinning, but Caleb has one of the widest smiles I have ever seen. I flip it over to see that the same handwriting had written "Tonks took this one."

The note enclosed with the photographs reads "I thought these would be of use. Be careful. Originals. Need to look good in my silk photo album. H. Ray." I place the note on my desk with and eye roll and spin around in my desk chair, trying to think of what to do next. Until I get that list, I have no idea who could be Caleb Keel, and since the Ministry has the information 'right here', then no one would approve an excursion to go out and find that information myself.

I grab the picture of the little boy and spin around in my chair again. There's something so familiar about him.

I pull my self back to the desk, glancing down at where my hand landing, right by the picture of Russell in the paper. No. It can't be.

I rip the two pictures of Russell out of the paper and pin them up next to the one of Caleb. No fucking way.

"Carter!" I yell, running into the hallway.

"He's in a meeting," Harry says, grabbing my shoulder and slowing me down. "What do you need?"

"Where is the Nimbus racing broom company?" I ask him desperately.

"Up north. I've been there. Do you need to go there?"

"Yeah, super important," I tell him. Harry grabs my arm and BAM! We're standing inside a broom factory.

A young artisan sits at a nearby table, examining twigs.

"Ma'm," I say "Do you know where Russell is?" I ask, flashing her my badge.

"Second office on the right," She says in shock. Harry and I run down the surgically clean hall to the office and I throw the door open.

"Hey!" Russell exclaims as we rush inside his large office. I barely have time to notice the beautiful view of a crystal lake and an ever stretching forest of good broom trees.

"Ted Lupin, Auror. This is my boss, Harry Potter. We need to ask you a few questions regarding a missing person case,"

"Teddy, dude, you know me! I'd never kidnap anyone! Did Chase go missing? Because you know just because I'm crazy for that chick, I'm not going to lock her up in a basement dungeon with fluffy pink handcuffs and a crew of serenading house elves!"

I try to ignore how specific that was. "You misunderstood me. The missing person in question is  _you_."

 


	8. Interlude Two: Healer Ray

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the long update wait!!! I got a little distracted and forgot to post another chapter...
> 
> A little warning, this chapter is a bit creepy. It's not gory or anything, but it's told from Healer Ray's point of view, and he sees nothing wrong with things that you and I might think of as immoral. Enjoy!

If back when I attended Hogwarts someone told me Remus Lupin was a werewolf, I would have asked them what they smoked. Seriously, that kid? A werewolf? I did not know Remus too well back then, of course, but two of his best friends were on my quidittch team and we were in the same house, two years apart. Like the rest of the school, I assumed his mother got ill. I did not hear about it until years later, when I read an article in the Prophet the year after I- the year after- the year after he taught at Hogwarts.

My very last patient fell down a flight of stairs after receiving a series of curses from Death Eaters in a battle that resulted in the world learning the truth about Voldemort's return. Remus Lupin, along with the man who would one day become the Minister of Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt, levitated the still woman into the hospital and I, one of the best specialists in the field of spell damage despite my young age, received the call to treat her. Although future former Minister Shacklebolt left as soon as we got her stabilized, Remus stayed with her until she awakened, I remember.

"Nymphadora, is it?" I asked her as she climbed out of slumber. Remus winced.

"Where's my wand?" She mumbles. "Gotta curse you."

"The battle's over, Miss," I inform her. "You should stay still."

"She's trying to curse you." Remus whispers. "She prefers to be called Tonks."

I nod and mentally remind myself to call her that. Earlier someone told me she was a trained Auror, someone not to cross.

I proceed to check how she's doing when a hospital executive, Ulysses Smithers, entered.

"Healer Harley Ray," Mr. Smithers said as he enters the room.

"I'm with a patient," I told him.

"We know about your relationship with Ms. Marta Keel."

Marta. Marta Keel. Oh God.

I met Marta in this same room, while she laid on the same bed Nymphadora Tonks did. Despite the heavy spell damage inflicted on her by her father and uncle, her smile lit up the dull hospital on that dreary Christmas day.

"I'm Healer Ray. I'll be treating you."

"Must be bad, coming here on Christmas. Not being able to spend time with your family."

"Don't really have any. That's why I'm here. Told them I should be on call today."

"You're a good man."

"Not really. Just doing what anyone else should."

"You are, Healer Ray. I can see it in your eyes."

She was the first, and only, one to tell me I was a good person. A lie as beautiful as she was.

We weren't good for each other, for more than the obvious reasons of she being my sixteen year old patient and I being her thirty two year old healer. We fed each other the words no one else would say to us, the love no one could share with us. Things…escalated rather quickly. A New Year's kiss that did not end after a lingering moment, but transformed into tongues rubbing tongues, bodies against bodies, skin touching skin. Neither of us acknowledged it as a mistake. In fact, there were many more mistakes after that, despite her constant pain. Being with me, she claimed, made her feel better.

Shortly before she was to return home, I made the discovery that changed everything. I waited an hour before telling her what I had found, simply because I had no idea how to break it to her.

"You're pregnant," I told her simply, when I was sure no one could hear, handing her the parchment proving myself that I knew she could not understand. The two of us were silent for a very long time.

"Do you know how far I am?" She asked me eventually.

"Two weeks. Otherwise, I would have figured out earlier.

"That means you must be the father."

She did not tell anyone I was the father, or talk to me again, for that matter. I visited her, when Caleb, my son, was born.

"Would you like to hold him?" She asked me. I declined. I knew where this was going. "Right now, I don't want you in our lives," She told me. "Maybe latter, when Caleb's older."

So that was that. I left the room, to not see the only person I had ever loved for years, and to not hear her name mentioned by others until Ulysses Smithers entered the hospital ward.

"I'm with a patient," I repeated in panic. "I don't think she should-"

"I'll take over her treatment," Another Healer said, entering the room. I stepped away from my charge and pulled Mr. Smithers outside.

"We cannot allow you here anymore, not after receiving the knowledge that you had sexual relations with a patient, an underage one at that."

But she loved me! I thought in protest. And I loved her! More than anyone.

I was not stupid enough to tell him that. Instead, I collected my things and left.

Not a few months later, I met Marta again, crying over her book in the Apothecary. No longer did her face turn the autumn cold to a warm spring, the dreary clouds to a sunny day or the dark shop to a bright store. The two of us were no longer the lost lovers who found their living drug on a lonely Christmas morning. I held her clammy hand for the first time since I discharged her from the hospital three years ago and promised her I would not only find Remus, but the research done on the Total Blood Transfusion spell.

I remembered that my old classmate visited my last patient. Unable to track down him, I found her instead.

"Ms Tonks?" I asked the dejected young woman as she opened the door.

"You're that creepy healer who got fired."

"Creepy?!" I exclaim.

"Remus told me Marta was one of his students. Only sixteen when she took off nearly a month of school to recover from that spell. I don't know what you did to her then, but if it got you fired-"

"I'm trying to help Marta!" I begged. "I need to find Remus! Her son got bitten, she's so scared, she needs someone to tell her-"

"Remus won't tell her it's going to be alright." She responded bitterly. "Don't let him near that kid. He'll just tell the two of them that there's no way out and that the kid's doomed to be miserable."

She nearly slammed the door on me, but I held it open. "I promised her."

"Fine, Mister Ray," She said to me, voice full of venom and mocking, purposefully reminding me of what I had let be taken from me. "I know how to extract him. Follow what I say exactly…"

Remus told Marta everything he knew about surviving with Lycanthropy, but like Tonks warned, his pessimism bled through. There was something between Remus and Tonks, I realized quickly, that the two tried hard to ignore. They matched as a couple, both so tired and uninspired, dull despite the excitement in their lives.

The two of them also agreed that my plan to transfer little Caleb's, my son's, lycanthropy to Marta was insane. It did not matter. Marta only listened to my words of fleeting hope for our child.

I didn't take advantage of Marta until that night, when I preformed the spell despite all sense telling me to not do so. She should have listened to Remus and Tonks. Hell, if not for the fact she loved me, she never would have followed my mad fantasies. She wouldn't have gotten lycanthropy too. Caleb never would have been taken.

Not a year latter, Remus and Tonk's organization, The Order of the Phoenix, lost trust in St. Mungo's. They desperately took an injured comrade to me for treatment. Then another. Then Remus asked if I had ever, in my research, come across a case of lycanthropy being passed from father to child. I explained that I had only stumbled across the blood transfusion charm by chance and that spell damage was always my forte.

Next, he brought me a young man who had been poisoned. A man named Tim Grey.

Mister Grey told me after much deliberation that his own father suffered from lycanthropy and practically laughed when I suggested it might be genetic. I made a false promise to the dying man and upon finding out he had left, told Remus everything Mister Grey told me.

"You promised you wouldn't?" Remus asks after I let slip that Tim Grey asked me not to tell Remus what I told him now.

"Well, maybe a little."

"I already knew all of this! Why did you feel the need to tell me all of this against Tim's wishes?"

"Because I know what it's like," I whispered. "To wait, if only for a few days, and wonder if your son is cursed for eternity."

"Caleb's yours?" Remus asked after a long moment.

I struck up an odd, uneasy alliance with the Order. I practically became a member, on par with a common thief they reluctantly kept around because of his connection to their fallen leader, of course. Like the criminal, they kept me for my skills and connections. In the end, Remus and Tonks shared a tentative friendship with me. At least, when they called me "Mister Ray", their voices lost the darkness they once held and almost took on a playful jest, which is about as close to a friend as I ever had.

Years after Remus and Tonks had perished, a teenager, barely more than a child, showed up on my doorstep, begging me to save the son of my lost comrades. I had almost forgotten about Mister Grey, oddly enough. Now, it all came rushing back, with the younger, red haired Lainey Grey, his bubbly "sister" almost kneeling at my stoop.

After Tim Grey recovered, I tracked him down and called upon him to find the son that over the years I began to suspect over the years had lived.

I didn't do it for myself. I did it for Marta Keel, the woman I loved.

And Caleb Keel. The son to whom I owed the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Like I said before, Healer Ray is not a person anyone should emulate. This is just how he sees things, and I thought it would be an interesting side view. I debated not posting this chapter, or even raising the rating, but because Marta was totally consensual in the whole affair, I figured it was okay. Side Note: This story takes place in the UK, of course, where the age of consent is 16, I believe.


	9. An Almost Ending

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mission Accomplished...?

A half an hour after I stormed into Russell's place of employment and demanded that he come into the Ministry for questioning, he returns with the oldest picture of himself he can find. Carter came out of his meeting so the two of us moved to the interrogation room for questioning.

"Russ," I say, placing him into the chair across from the table in the middle of the sterile white room. "Is it true that you were found in Greyback's compound at the age of three?"

"More or less. It was hard to tell. I was bitten so young I don't remember anything from before the compound."

"Absolutely nothing?" I ask. He shakes his head. Carter and I glance at each other.

"Russell," Carter says. "I'm going to show you a few pictures of some women. I want you to tell me if you recognize any of them."

Carter fans a group of pictures across the table. One is of Marta Keel. The others are from our photo archives. There's a photo taken of Lily right when she got back to her own time, when she still looked like an eighteen year old blond, a happy-smiley one that I am pretty sure someone took from a stock photo library and a picture one of my coworkers and "friend" took of me while masquerading as Bambi the Bimbo Bus Girl. Damn you Carter. Why did you have to add that one in?

"I wish I knew that one," He says, pointing to Bambi.

"Focus," I command. Carter and I turn around and give him a few minutes before he shakes his head in defeat.

"Let's try these objects," I say, placing some cuff links , my watch and a necklace Harry was able to borrow from his good friend Hermione for this exercise. He doesn't recognize any of these objects, but he's not suppose to. It's just to make sure his readings are somewhat reliable. Meanwhile, Carter and I place a picture of six-year old Russell Baker next to the one we have of Caleb Keel.

I mutter the spell "muffliato" and we begin comparing the pictures in hushed voices.

"These two kids look like they might be the same," I say. "Hard to tell with the four year difference, though. How much do kids change in that time?"

"Umm," Carter says. "I don't really spend much time with kids. I mean, there's my niece and nephew, but I have not idea how they looked two years ago anymore, you know? It's really subtle."

"Yeah. I think these kids are the same though," I say, walking back over to Russell. "One more thing. I'm going to list off a group of names." I sit facing away from him at the desk. Carter leaves the room to stand behind the enchanted wall that lets him look in the room without letting Russell know that's what he's doing.

"Here are the names: Richard, Jason, Caleb, Tim-"

"Caleb," He says. I turn around to see him picking up the picture of Marta Keel. "There's something about that name."

"I need you to come in real quick tomorrow," I say after a few moments. He nods that he can do that. "We're done with you for now. Do you know how to get out?"

"Yeah. Is this the part where you tell me not to leave the country?"

"That would be preferable. Especially since you agreed to come in tomorrow, but you're not a suspect of a crime, I can't make you do anything"

Russell takes another long look at the photo. "If I'm this missing person, then is this my mother?" He asks, holding up the picture.

"Is it?"

"I mean, are one of these women my mother?" He asks as he gestures to the others.

"Yes," I say after a moment of diliberation. Russell nods and leaves the room. I do not notice until later that he took Marta Keel's picture.

"I think it's him," I tell Carter after Russell is out of earshot. "Is Spenser still here? She's the one who does all the genetic testing spells."

"She left. We'll have to do it tomorrow," Harry says, entering the room. "Just wanted to see how this case was going. Oh how I miss the days when we'd have to do memory recovery charms on missing persons,"

"Miss those days?! Even now when we have to do those it freaks me out," I exclaim. "And anyway, last time I ventured into someone else's memories, I heard something I couldn't ever unhear. And I'm not talking about Healer Ray's little experiment."

"What was it?" Harry asks.

"My parents," I say grimly. Harry looks taken aback and places his hand on my shoulder.

"Teddy, if you want to talk about it…"

"No way. Never. I'm still trying to forget about my parents discussing, you know, doing it. There's nothing to talk about."

"That was it?" Harry asks, throughly surprised. Carter begins to descend into hysterical laughter.

"That was it? That was it!" I exclaim. "What could be worse than that?"

"I mean, they could have been total wankers," Harry says. I wonder to myself which is worse.

I go to Marta Keel's house that night, to tell her to come in tomorrow for the spell. She asks me to come in for a cup of tea, and, against my better judgment, I do.

"Do you want sugar?" Marta asks as she hands me an old, warm mug of the piping hot beverage and places a small carton of milk on the table.

"Nah, I'm good," I answer, pouring the milk into my cup. "The spell tomorrow won't take too long. You should only have to be at the Ministry for about a half an hour."

"Who is he?" Marta says the second I finish speaking.

"I...I don't think I'm supposed to tell you yet." I tell her.

"I've waited over twenty five years to see my son," she pleads. "Please don't make me wait any longer."

The two of us stare at each other for a long moment. Finally, I grab the paper and turn it over to the sport's section.

"Read Potter's article." I tell her. She picks it up and finds the special on Russell.

"This is him?"

"I just told you to read the article, ma'm," I reply. She gets it.

I wake up with a start on Thursday. So much to do today. Hopefully finish up this whole Marta and Caleb Keel business, tell Healer Ray he owes me now, the wedding rehearsal.

"Wedding Rehearsal?!" I exclaim loudly, bolting up in bed. Crap, that's today?

"Did we forget something?" Victoire mumbles into her pillow.

"It's today, right?"

"Yeah. And then you have to get married on Saturday, remember?"

"Married!?" Oh right. I remembered that one.

I rushed to the office that morning, wanting to finish up this whole case before tonight so I could take the day off tomorrow to get ready for the wedding.

"Hey, Lupin." Carter says, leading Spenser behind him.

"You guys ready?" I ask. Spenser nods. I turn around and run to the elevator again. Russell and Marta should be here in ten minuets or so.

"Atrium," the 'elevator babe' as Carter calls her says as I rush out of the elevator and make my way over to security. I get there just in time to see Old Mr. Saftey-Before-Personal-Space probing Russell with his security sensor.

"If you see a little more down there, it's not anything dangerous, unless you're a lady," Russell tells the security man with a wink.

"Stop flirting with the Security Personal and get down stairs," I tell him. His face turns red and he makes his way over to the elevator.

I wait in the Atrium for Marta to show up so I can lead her to the Aurror department. She arrives only a minute late.

"Sorry," She tells me in the elevator. "I forgot where the visitor's entrance was. Which is weird, since I used to come here with Caleb all the time. Eddie liked to show him off to his coworkers."

"No problem. Just follow me."

The two of us make our way down and I take her through the mass of Aurror cubicle's until I get to Spenser's office. Carter lets us inside before we have time to knock. As we enter the office, Russell and Marta glance at each other, as if trying to see if they really are mother and son. I discreetly take the picture of Marta, Healer Ray and Caleb, glancing between Healer Ray and Russell, looking for a resemblance. I think the two of them might have the same nose and eye color. It's fortunate that, if he is Caleb, he inherited his mother's looks; Healer Ray is kind of ugly.

"Alright," Spenser says, standing up and lightly stroking her wand. "The spell I'm going to preform isn't going to hurt. Not like the Organ Compatibility Charm," She says with a sadistic smile. "Just hold still and don't let your DNA move around too much,"

"Question?" Russell says, raising his hand. "How do I keep my DNA still?"

Spenser smiles again but does not answer. "Here we go."

Spenser waves her wand over the two, whispering an incantation under her breath. An eerie, still silence descends over the room. No one even breathes. Then, a soft golden glow spreads out from their hearts and fills the room with light. For a moment, all I can think of is the end of How the Grinch Stole Christmas, when the Grinch's heart grew three sizes, making me remember that Hermione always gave me books for Christmas and wonder if she's going to get me one for a wedding present too.

"What does that mean?" Russell asks. I look over at Spenser, wondering the same thing.

"It means that the two of you are related."

"He's my son?" Marta asks quietly.

"Well, either that or your his daughter. Kind of doubt that though."

It's odd, what happens next. The five of us just kind of stay still, because how are you supposed to react when you find your long lost son? Or even find out you're not really an orphan? You've just been missing for over twenty five years and didn't even know it.

After a moment, the two get up from their chairs and pull each other into a long hug. It feels like I should, I don't know, clap or sing a song or something like that, but quite frankly that's not normal unless you're in a musical. "I've missed you," Marta tells him.

"I've missed you too," Russell Baker, formally Caleb Keel, replies upon letting go. Some might say see this moment and think to themselves that they're done. I still have one more thing to do.


	10. Rehersal

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teddy prepares to get married.

Caleb and Marta Keel have been reunited. Officially, I have completed this missing person's case. Unoffically, I still have a few loose ends to tie up.

First I have to get through tonight's toasts and roasts, as well as getting the whole 'tumbling down the aisle' thing out of my system. I leave work early and head over to my future in-laws's, Fleur and Bill Weasley, home. Victorie is already there, changing out of her work clothes and into a flowery sun dress. I go over to a hallway mirror and turn my hair into a bright shade of purple after changing my own clothes into a sleek, stylish pair of robes from our friend Evie's not yet released collection.

"I still don't know why you need an espresso bar for ze reception," Victoire's mother complained.

"It'll be cool, mum," Victoire retorts. "Everyone loves lattes, except Teddy, and he's weird."

"What's this?" I hear Bill Weasey yell from the attic. He's looking for the cuff links from when he got married. Since I gave Victoire my mother's necklace, she wanted to give me something from her family.

Bill slides down the latter and hands me a small blue box, while he studies an envelope. "Do Not Open until July 28, 2022?" He reads, ripping open the letter. His eyes widen a bit and he stuffs the letter in his pocket.

"What is it dad?" Victoire asks.

"Something Remus gave to me when Teddy was born. Not important."

Victoire takes the letter out of his pocket and reads it. "Well, this would have been useful a while go," Victoire tells me, handing me the letter written in the now-familiar script.

Bill,

Teddy is at Andromeda's house on September 19, 1997.

Remus.

"Um..Sorry?" Bill says, taking back the letter.

"Hey, no harm, no foul."

Ten minutes later we're standing in the chapel. Victoire is chatting away with her bridesmaids, Chelsea, Evie and her French second cousin, Juliette. Her sister Dominique is busy trying to keep their two littlest cousins, Cosette and Pierre, the flower girl and ring bearer, in line.

"Do I have to wear a tux?" Lily asks me. I turn to her and roll my eyes.

"Didn't you already get bridesmaid's dress?"

"Yeah, but I'm a groomswomen. Don't I get a tuxedo?"

"I thought you were a bridesmaid?"

"Yeah, well, Vic and I are cousins and all, but she only asked me to be a bridesmaid to because she knows you and I are so close. Louis and I thought we'd drop the pretense and call each other groomswomen and bridesmen. Aren't we genius?"

"Well, do you see Louis wearing a dress?"

"No."

"Then no."

Lily rolls her eyes and sits on the bench next to me. Al, James, Robert, Louis and Carter arrive. Victoire notices everyone is here and gathers everyone up.

"Alright," She says. "Teddy's going to come down the aisle first with the minister. Then we'll have the bridesmaids-"

"And bridesmen!" Louis interrupts.

"What? What's that? Stop interrupting me," Victoire says, angrily. "So we'll have Dominique and Robert, the Maid of Honor and Best Man, walk down together. Then Chelsea and James, Al and Evie and Juliette and Carter. Finally, we will have Louis and Lily."

"Since we're different. Special." Lily interrupted.

"Yes. Special. Finally, I'll walk down the aisle, looking more beautiful then any of you all. Ready to start?"

We all nod. I stand at the back of the chapel while the wedding planner sets up the record with the practice music in it.

"Hey, Teddy," Lily whispers as she gets into position.

"What?"

"If my soul inhabited your body, I would not let your magical augmentation, Metamorphmagusism, anti-equilibrium lower limb motor disorder interfere with your holy matrimony."

"Did you just say that to make me figure out what the hell you just said while I'm supposed to be worried about not tripping?"

She does not answer. The wedding planner is ushering me forward.

Okay, you can do this. Just don't walk too fast or too slow, and don't try to translate what Lily just said.

The music starts as I start to make my way down the aisle. Wait a moment, this isn't the wedding march! Oh wait, I don't walk to that: Victoire does.

"Ted, you're not the bride. You can walk faster," The wedding planner commands, gesturing at me to move faster. I speed up and make it to the alter without slipping. Cosette and Pierre walk down the aisle thoroughly confused without their basket of flower petals and ring cushion. The bridesmaids and groomsmen make it to the front, no problem. Then it's Victoire's turn.

"Dun dun duh dun," Victorie sings quietly with the record.

"Victorie, you're walking too fast," The wedding planner tells her. "This isn't a shotgun wedding!"

"That's what you think," Victorie says quietly as she makes her way to the front.

"What?" I exclaim. "You're pregnant?!" I yell, stumbling backwards into the candle, knocking over the cross and banging my head onto the alter. Lily descends into a fit of giggles.

"I was joking, Teddy," Victoire says as she kneels down to lift me up. "Is your head okay?" she asks as she conjures up an ice pack.

"Great, now we have to start over," The wedding planner says. "Everyone back to the beginning!"

"My head hurts!" I moan. "Can we have dinner now?"

"Do you want your wedding to be a disaster?" She asks.

"Let's just get to the vows," Vic complains.

"Fine!" She exclaims. "But don't blame me when the wedding goes wrong!"

The rest of the wedding rehearsal does not go off without a hitch. The wedding planner pretends to be the minister when asking me if I actually want to go through with this "Do you, Edward Remus Lupin, take this woman, Victorie Isabelle Weasley, -"

"Who the hell is Edward?"

"That's your name, Teddy," Victoire whispers.

"Oh. Oh right, I forgot."

"Teddy, I think it would be best if just say 'I do' and repeat after me without thinking about what's being said," The wedding planner tells me.

"When do we get to the part where we make out?" Victoire asks.

"Just kiss; don't make out. That's gross."

We eventually get through this disaster and head off to The Leaky Caldron for dinner.

"-And then Teddy knocks over all the candles and knocks his head on the alter!" Victoire tells our family animatedly. I laugh along the rest of them, nestled between Victoire and Lily at the cramped table. Between all of the Weaslys (and I do mean all of them), Vic's maternal grandparents, her aunt and uncle Gabrielle and Philipe, and the wedding party, I'm not sure why any sane person let us in.

"I still don't know what a shotgun wedding is!" Cosette moans.

"Oh, it's simple" James explains "it's just when the the bride and groom have to get married quickly because the bride is knock-"

"Kids!" Gabrielle exclaims, quickly covering her children's ears. "Zey can know when zey're older!"

"Hi!" Hannah Longbottom, owner of The Leaky Caldron, exclaims to the table. "How you all doing tonight? Has Tammy brought the menus? She's new, you know, but the waitstaff seems to haze the newbies by giving them the party tables," She explains.

"Tammy's been doing great," Victoire assures her.

"Glad everyones doing alright," Hannah's husband, Professor Longbottom, says upon entering the room.

"Ah! School!" Al exclaims, ducking under the table.

"Albus, get up!" Ginny commands. "Are you in trouble again?"

"Hi, Professor!" Victoire and I say in unison.

"You can call me Neville now, you know," He tells us.

"No can do, Professor," I assure him. "That's weird."

"I know what you mean. Your dad told me to call him Remus back at the Department of Mysteries. Couldn't do it. I heard you guys are trying to clean that mess up," He adds to Victoire.

"Heard? Who told you!" James exclaims. "Vic, we have to report them!"

"Relax, James. If we had to call in every time someone let slip that Uncle Harry and those Death Eaters broke, like, everything, we'd never get any work done."

The rest of the dinner continues in good spirits. The food is good, and it seems like everyone has a sarcastic comment or two to tell Vic and I.

Partway through dinner, I turn to Lily and grab one of her chips. "I have a job for you on Saturday," I tell her.

"What is it?" She asks, grabbing my drink and taking a swig. She nearly spits it out. "What is that?"

"That is Firewiskey and soda water. You should stick with Butterbeer," I tell her as she grabs a sugar cube and places it on her tongue. "Pay special attention to Russell Baker, alright?"

She salutes. "Can do, Captain."

The next morning I make my way over to Healer Ray's house for the third time this week. This morning, he's tending to his herb garden, pulling up weeds and examining plants for bug and animal bites.

"Healer Ray!" I yell, getting his attention.

"Mister Grey. Come over here and help."

I knell beside him, thankful I had opted for muggle jeans this morning. He handed me a pair of gloves and instructed me to put them on.

"These are the weeds. Pull them up, but don't touch the herbs," He commands, showing me a small tuff of grass. I reach into the soil and pull one out, showing it to him as if to ask if I did it right. He nods.

"Did you read the Sport's section yesterday?" I ask.

"If you're here to talk quidditch,I don't have the time."

"Time? What? Aren't you unemployed? How do you get money anyway?"

"I grow herbs for the apothecary, thank you very much. I'm one of their best suppliers. Mine are very fresh."

"Whatever. Russell Baker was featured in Wesnday's section in an article written by Ginny Potter. We found out he was born as Caleb Keel, and was renamed Russell by Greyback's people because of his red hair."

"You found him?" Healer ray asks, dropping the weed he had in his hand.

"Yeah," I say, pulling a piece of parchment from my pocket. "Here's his address. Now, I invited him to my wedding tomorrow, and he wouldn't miss a chance to see my friend Chelsea, so you better get there either today or tomorrow before eleven."

"Has Marta told him about me?"

"No idea. But remember, you promised me you'd talk to him."

"I don't want to just go to his house and bother him like that."

"Fine," I stand up and throw the gloves on the ground beside him. "Noon tomorrow. Seaside Chapel in Southern England. He'll be there. I expect you to be there too. If you don't talk to him there, I'll know."

"You remind me of Remus," He tells me, seemingly out of nowhere.

"What?" I ask.

"He would have had this same conversation with me. Damn hypocrite," He says. "You know, I told him your father was a werewolf next time I saw him. I asked him how you were, and he told me you'd gone home and you were fine. He never mentioned you and Lainey were time travelers. Didn't even know until the damn Boy Who Lived and his kid showed up at my doorstep."

"He already knew," I tell Healer Ray. "I told him I was his son."

"You told him!?" Healer Ray asks in shock. "Why the hell did you do that?"

"So he wouldn't kill himself, obviously. And he had already just about figured it out."

"Oh. Well, he told me he already knew your father was a werewolf and got really mad that I broke our agreement. The two of you are just that kind of people, you know? Both very honest."

I stare at him for a few seconds, wondering if perhaps he's trying to divert my attention. "Do you have any Wiggenweld?"

"Wiggenweld? Why?"

"I promised a friend of mine I'd get her some fresh herbs. They're in season, right?"

Healer Ray reaches over to another part of the garden and gives me a bunch of Wiggenweld "How much do I owe you?" I ask.

"They're on the house."

"I want to see you at noon tomorrow. Come to the reception. Victoire got an espresso bar."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I gave Victoire the same middle name as her mother because I have the same the same middle name as my mother and variations on that name stretch back a few generations. Also, I tend to forget my "fancy" name because literally everyone calls me a nickname, like Teddy. When I read Teddy's name was really Edward, I was like wWhHaAtT? Now I have three characters with Twilight names in this story! And two named Edward (Teddy and Eddie Sinclair)! Dammit. Also, last chapter when the names "Richard, Jason, Caleb, Tim" are listed off, the non-Caleb names have something in common. Virtual cookie if you guess it! Hint: I <3 Damien and Stephanie, their names just didn't work in the list.


	11. I Now Pronounce

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teddy realizes what's really important.

I don't eat anything the next morning.

Victoire leaves home at about seven thirty to get ready. I feel like I should do something to get prepared as well, but it doesn't take me four and a half hours to get ready. I decide to take a shower after a few minuets of debating what to do.

After cleaning up, I grab my things and apperate to the chapel.

"DON'T come in here!" Lily exclaims, pressing her back against a side door as I enter the chapel.

"I already saw Vic today," I tell her.

"No, no, no, everyone knows that. But it is bad luck to see the bridesmaid's changing before the wedding too because then they'll call you a perv and attack you," She explains.

"Right. I have another job for you," I tell her. "Healer Ray will be at the wedding. If he's not, then we have another problem. Get the ushers to sit him next to Russell, alright? And make sure the two of them stay together like glue until you hear loud screaming and curse words."

"Why?"

"Because if Healer Ray doesn't talk to Russell before I leave the country, he never will.

"Why do you care?"

Why  _do_  I care? I stop thinking so frantically for a moment and wonder why I do. Because I get passionate about my cases? But I chose this case myself. I came to Thompson and begged him to make this into a case.

"I mean, ever since you got back, you've been obsessed with bringing people together. If I've heard you say your glad Chelsea stopped hanging around with Annalise once, you've said it a thousand times. Then you have the sudden urge to bring them together. Maybe Russell's fine without Healer Ray, for whatever reason you want to reunite them or whatever."

"Healer Ray is Russell's  _father_. I have a pretty good reason for wanting to bring them together."

"Yeah. Thing is, that reason is because things between you and Remus didn't turn out that well, did they? You get a once in a lifetime chance to meet your father, and you blow it by arguing with him the whole time. The two of you 'made up', sure, but it took him poisoning you to get there, didn't it?"

I slump down the wall and sit on the floor. Lily's right, isn't she? I tried to tell myself this was about everyone else, but it isn't, is it? It's all about me.

"Hey," Lily says as she bends down and places her hand on my shoulder. "Things wouldn't have been like this if your mum and dad had lived, alright? I know I didn't know Remus for long, but I miss him too."

* * *

Here we are.

It's almost noon now. The bridesmaids and groomsmen are all dressed. The guests are sitting anxiously in their seats. Victoire and I are sitting on a couch in the back room, her head placed against my chest.

"Hmm," She muses, glancing at my hair. "No, that's not the right color. A little paler."

Against my grandmother's judgement and wishes, we decided that I should have blue hair for the wedding. We're getting married, not her. If she can add her sister and company to the guest list including every Weasley in existence (which she did), then I can make my hair pale blue to match the color scheme.

"You guys have to come out now," Robert says, peaking his head inside the room. I pull Victoire out of the couch and, still holding her hand, lead her outside.

"Go!" Robert exclaims, pushing me out the doors and into the crowd of people.

How many people did we invite to this thing? I'm pretty sure it ended up being half of London. I remind myself that I'm not the bride and can therefore walk faster and make my way up to the alter. By the time I orient myself, Victoire is already walking down the aisle, not too fast because this is not a shotgun wedding.

I'm on auto pilot the entire ceremony. Now I know why all they make the bride and groom do is say "I do", put on some rings, and start kissing, because I don't know how I would remember much else. I don't know if our wedding was shorter than all the other dragging affairs I've had to sit through or if it just felt that way, but before the two of us knew it, we were running out of the chapel, hand in hand, while all our friends and family pelted large handfuls of rice at us. I know people just sprinkle a bit on the newlyweds, but Victoire's cousins Fred and Lily just went ahead and started scooping as much rice as they could out of the bags.

"Ah, get the car door," Vic yells as I struggle to get the door open. I pull the door open and leap into the car as Lily tries to dump a bag of rice on us.

"Where's the invisibility booster? Did I get that fixed?" I ask.

"I took it in when you were gone. Hit the accelerator!" Vic cries.

I accelerate and we take off into the sky.

The reception ended up being pretty awesome. Victoire's parent's house ended up being the perfect place to have it. The sea air kept the summer heat at bay. No one got too wasted and everyone loved the espresso bar. I saw Russell and Marta during the party. We did not talk for long, but they thanked me for what I did for them. A little while later I did see Russell and Healer Ray talking to each other. I don't know what Healer Ray said to him. Maybe later I'll ask Lily if she heard. I'm sure Russell will tell me all about it next time I see him. The three of them can work it out on their own just fine.

The bigger excitement stemmed from my own family, especially when we found out that Lily's elusive boyfriend was none other than Scorpius Malfoy. Harry and Ginny didn't freak out as much as her brothers predicted, but the knowledge that the youngest Malfoy was dating Lily Potter was enough to diffuse another slowly swelling argument about an old family heirloom between Grandma and Great Aunt Narcissa, as she had another crisis to deal with. I guess having a Weasley marry someone descended from the Black family is alright, but mixing Potters and Malfoys is just one couple too far.

And who caught the bouquet? Was it Chelsea, before running off to dance with Russell? Marta, glancing over at Healer Ray and asking herself if she should forgive him? Or even Lily, causing her brothers to make awkward comments to her and Scorpius the rest of the night? None of those! The bouquet dropped on the floor and Victoire's seven year old cousin Cosette picked it up and ran around the yard with it until her mother was able to catch her. Of course, we don't need old wedding traditions to figure who will stay together, especially when we have Al in the corner, reading tea leaves and trying to convince everyone he's actually a seer. He says we can all expect good fortune and happiness in years ahead. I don't know if he's just making that up or not, but let's just assume he's right and leave it at that.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before I read this chapter to my sister, I asked her what she thought would happen. She predicted a cheesy scene of full on panic where Healer Ray didn't arrive until later, bursting in and interrupting. He'd argue with Russell and maybe Marta and MEGA SOAP OPERA DRAMA! We both liked the subtlety and calm implications of this ending better. I hope you did too. Not that the Ray-Keel family reunion went one hundred percent without problems, just that Teddy stopped caring about them and started focusing on his own life and problems. I hope I led up to this ending enough, with a few characters asking Teddy why he was being such a nosy bastard. Thanks to all who stuck through to the end! 
> 
> ~Already There~


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